PRIVATE LIBRAEY 
 
 — OF— 
 
 J. S. Leonhardt, M. D. 
 
 Mo /.V
 
 THE 
 PRO AND CON 
 
 OP 
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION; 
 
 OR, 
 
 An Answer to the Question: '''■Have we a Supermit- 
 
 uraUy Revealed, Infallibly Inspired, an I 3firac- 
 
 ulously Attested Religion in the World?^^ 
 
 IN FOUR PARTS. 
 
 Pakt I. A brief history of the four great Religions 
 claiming a Supernatural origin— Paganism, Judaism. 
 Christianity and Mohammedanism. 
 
 Pabt II. Review of the arguments in favor of Super- 
 natural Religion. 
 
 Part III. Statement of the arguments against Super- 
 natural Religion. 
 
 Part IV. Particular remarks on the Supernatural 
 Origin of Christianity, and statement of the views of 
 Rationalists on Inspiration. Revelation and Religion. 
 
 BY E. E. GUILD. 
 
 TOGETHEB WITH A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 There is no human religion outside of human nature. 
 
 The different forms of religion contain the elements of 
 one universal religion, and are but different phases of 
 the religion of humanity. 
 
 Describe to me the God whom you worship, and I see 
 In that description a reflex image of yourself. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 B. M. BENNETT, 335 BROADW 
 
 1876.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Whenever an opinion or institution which»has 
 long been held to be sacred, is attacked, the preju- 
 dices of their adherents will of course be shock- 
 ed. This proves nothing either for or against the 
 opinion or institution. The same shock is experienced 
 by the Egyptian when he hears the sacredness of leeks 
 and onions, cats and other animals questioned. Also 
 by the Hindoo, when the divinity of bis idols is dis- 
 puted. And by the Mohammedans, when the authority 
 of the Koran is denied. For ages mankind have 
 revered, venerated and held sacred three great idols — 
 the Priesthood, the Bible and the Church. The first 
 has been regarded as the authorized instructor of the 
 people in knowledge, wisdom and virtue ; the second 
 as the ultimate standard of appeal to settle all differ- 
 ences of opinion ; the lust as a secure shelter from the 
 wrath of an incensed Deity and the evil influence of 
 a semi-omnipotent Devil, who disputes willi llie Al- 
 mighty the supremacy of the Universe. These are 
 monstrous errors, degrading and pernicious in their 
 influence. One design of this work is to expose them. 
 
 Although the Priesthood of the present day profess 
 to be the friends of education, they are so only in so 
 far as they can control it. There is a certain kind of 
 
 2064089
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 information which, to the extent of their ability, they 
 keep from the knowledge of the people. This work 
 is intended to impart to them that very knowledge. 
 The writer does not believe that ignorance is the 
 mother of true devotion, nor that it is a good soil for 
 the growth of true religion. Nor does he believe with 
 Eusebius that falsehood is good as a medicine for the 
 mind, nor that in order to benefit the people it is 
 necessary to deceive them. He does not endorse the 
 sentiment of Gregory, surnamed " The Divine," who 
 says, " a little jargon is all that is necessary to impose 
 on tfie people," nor that of Synecius, a bishop of the 
 Church, whose opinion was that " the people are de- 
 sirous of being deceived." And although he said that 
 " to himself he should always be a philosopher, but, 
 in dealing with the mass of mankind, he should be a 
 priest," we say it is the duty of every man who as- 
 sumes the office of a public instructor, to be not only 
 a philosopher to himself, bat to the people also, and 
 to make philosophers of them too if he can. We do 
 not believe that there is anything true about religion 
 that the people ought not to know, nor anything false 
 that it is expedient for them to believe. If the peopie 
 are perishing at all, it is for the lack of knowledge 
 and for proper direction of the faculties and powe-s 
 which the God of Nature has bestowed upon tbem. 
 
 The present inhabitants of the world number 1,288,- 
 000,000 souls ; one-quarter of these are nominal Chris- 
 tians. If we allow that one in four of these are actu- 
 al professors, the number will be 80,500,000. Can tiic 
 idea be entertained for a monient that for a period of 
 near 6,000 years God has been endeavoring, by the 
 most stupendous miracles, to establish a religion in the 
 world, on the belief of which hang blli^;)ended the
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 eternal interests of mankind, and that belief in it is 
 confined to only a small remnant of our race ? Is it 
 not a much better, broader, more charitable view, one 
 more honorins; to God, and more satisfactory to be- 
 lieve, that all forms of religion contain some truth 
 and some error, and that it is a perfectly lawful and 
 legitimate business to separate the one from the other ? 
 To this work these pages are dedicated as an assist- 
 ant. May they be efiectual in accomplishing this design. 
 The position defended by the author is, that there is no 
 true religion except what is perfectly natural to man ; 
 and that whatever else is so called, is a delusion and 
 a snare. The great objection urged against this view 
 is, that "without supernatural revelation, we could 
 know nothing about God, or our relations to him, nor 
 of our duty to him and our fellow-men." This comes 
 with an ill grace from those who accept as infallible 
 an authority which flatly contradicts them. The Bible 
 teaches that ' ' the heavens declare the glory of God, 
 that the invisible tilings of him, from the creation 
 of the world, are clearly seen, being understood 
 by the things that are made." Paul quoted the 
 testimony of a heat.hen poet to prove that mankind aie 
 the children of God, and he asserted that the Gentiles 
 who had not the law, but were a law unto themselves, 
 did by nature the things contained in the law, their 
 consciences accusing or excusing one another, Jesus, 
 addressing the nmltitude, says, "why even of your- 
 selves judge ye not what is right ?" implying an abil- 
 ity on their part to distinguish between right and 
 wrong. But what can be expected of men who have 
 been educated to think that investigation and the use 
 of their reason are wrong, and put in jeopardy their 
 eternal interest i What men need is to have the men-
 
 PREFACK 
 
 tal crutches on which they have been leaning remov- 
 ed ; to be taught to rely on themselves, and "stand 
 up and show themselves men." No greater evil exists 
 in human society than a superstition which makes 
 mental and moral slaves of men, drowning reason in 
 fanaticism, and making men fear to use legitimately 
 the powers and faculties which the God of Nature has 
 bestowed upon them. 
 
 This work is designed to impress the minds of men, 
 not by addressing their love of the mysterious and 
 wonderful, but by appeals to those powers of the 
 mind with whose dictates the views herein presented 
 are in perfect harmony. The religious world is in a 
 state of transition, consequent on which there is great 
 commotion and apparent confusion. The same state 
 of things existed soon after the breaking out of the 
 Protestant Reformation, in view of which some timid 
 men like Melancthon and Erasmus, threatened to 
 abandon the cause and go back to the Mother Church. 
 We have the same class of timid souls now. They 
 fear that free investigation will unsettle the very foun- 
 dations of religious belief, and leave men without any 
 religion at all. But men of strong faith know better. 
 The number of brave, free-born minds is very greatly 
 on the increase. They do not fail to lay the axe at the 
 root of the tree, to strike at the very foundation of 
 superstition, bigotry and intolerance. They realize 
 that the present commotion cannot always continue ; 
 that the storm will ultimately settle into a calm ; and 
 that when the strife is over, on surveying the situa- 
 tion, it will be found a very great advance has been 
 made in religious thought and ideas.
 
 The Pro and Con of Supernatural Eeligion, 
 
 PART I. 
 
 A brief Imtory of the four great Religions claiming a 
 Supernatural Origin — Paganism, Judaism^ Clmstianity 
 and Mohammedanism. 
 
 Is Religion a special revelation from God to man ? 
 This is an important question. If the affirmative is 
 true, it ought to be known and believed by all men. 
 If the negative answer is the true one, the sooner the 
 fact is made known to the world the better. In 
 answer to the question, millions of voices will loudl/ 
 exclaim Yes! On the other hand millions of men 
 with equal confidence and emphasis will answer No! 
 Both cannot be right. Both are ready to adduce ar- 
 guments to justify their respective opinions. I pro- 
 pose at this time to array the arguments of the con- 
 tending parties before you. I will give them an open 
 field and fair play, and allow you to judge which 
 comes off victor in the contest. Nearly all great 
 battles are preceded by skirmishes — by the skirmish 
 lines of the respective armies. And so, before I bring 
 on the onset between the opposing arguments of the 
 attirmative and negative, it will be necessary in order
 
 8 THE PRO AKD CX)N OP 
 
 that you may liave a clear view of the battle to clear 
 the field by stating a few preliminaries. 
 
 By supernatural we understand an event, occur 
 rence, or phenomenon, produced by a special, direct 
 and miraculous act of Divine power. 
 
 By Nature, we mean the Universe, with ail its 
 varied physical, intellectual, and moral phenomena. 
 
 The four principal religions in the world claiming 
 a supernatural origin are, the Pagan, Jewish, Christian 
 and Mohammedan. Paganism was the religion of all 
 the nations of the earth previous to the establishment 
 of Judaism, and is now the religion of more than one 
 half of mankind. We can trace its history backward 
 into the darkness of remote ages when no human 
 records were made. It ii the most ancient, the most 
 wide spread and has endured the longest of any re- 
 ligion in the world. Dr. Justin observes, that, "It 
 was the religion of the greatest, the wisest, and the 
 politest nations, of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and 
 Phoenicians, the parents of civil government, and of 
 arts and sciences." It held its power over the minds 
 of men until a century of the time of Christ, at which 
 period it began to wane. At the time of the appear- 
 ance of Christ universal skepticism prevailed through- 
 out all Greece, and Rome, among all their poets, philos- 
 ophers, statesmen, and priests. The forms how- 
 ever were kept up, and the common people who were 
 sunk in ignorance still continued to adhere to it. In 
 this they were encouraged by their educated men and 
 priests, among whom it was a maxim, that, there 
 were many things true in religion which it was not 
 convenient for the vulgar to know ; and some things, 
 which, though false, it was expedient for tliem to 
 believe. Those who should have been the instructoi-s
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. V 
 
 of the people were their deceivers. Hence, two kinds 
 of philosophy and religion were taught by them ; tlie 
 Esoteric and Exoteric, the first to be taught to the 
 educated, the other to the masses of the uneducated 
 people. 
 
 Judaism has existed over three thousand years. 
 It was the religion of one nation only, and that com- 
 paratively small and inhabiting only a small portion 
 of the earth. It is a very prevalent opinion in our 
 day that the Jews throughout their whole history have 
 maintained a steady and uniform faith in their re- 
 ligion. This is a very great mistake. Unbelievers 
 were by no means uncommon among them. They 
 had their Paines and Voltaires as well as we. At a 
 very early period after the establishment of their re- 
 ligion by Moses, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, "and . 
 two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, 
 famous in the congregation, men of renoWn," rose up 
 in rebellion against him, and disputed his right to 
 exercise authority over thera. It is impossible to 
 account for this fact only on the supposition that 
 these men had no faith in the Divine appointment and 
 authority of Moses. Reason asserted itself in the 
 minds of these dissenters ; but its voice was silenced 
 by the popular clamor, and Korah and his com- 
 pany were sacrificed to the fury of their more credu- 
 lous and practical countrymen. Aaron, a brother of 
 Moses, and the first priest of the new religion, and 
 his wife Miriam, rebelled against Moses, claiming that 
 he had no superiority over them as a teacher of the 
 Lord. 
 
 The frequent murmurings and rebellions of the 
 Jews against Moses, shows that their confidence in his 
 divine authority was often shaken and sometimes
 
 10 THE PRO Ain) CON OF 
 
 well nigh abandoned. Absalom, too, rebelled against 
 his own father David, and sought to supplant mm on 
 the throne, and he had many adherents. Solomon 
 apostatized from the religion of his fathers, and 
 adopted that of the Pagans. After the death of Sol- 
 omon, ten of ihe Hebrew tribe set up a kingdom of 
 their own, renounced Judaism and embraced and 
 practiced Paganism. This continued for a period of 
 two hundred and fifty years. In the mean time, the 
 kingdom of Judah vacillated between the two re- 
 ligious, sometimes practicing the one, then the other. 
 During the reigns of Hezekiah, and Josiah, Judaism 
 was revived and flourished for a short time, but soon 
 sank again with the fall of the nation. It is now well 
 nigh extinct ; a great majority of the Jews of the 
 present day no longer regard it as a supernatural 
 religion. At that time, and long before the ap- 
 pearance of. Christ, the Jews were divided into 
 different sects, much skepticism prevailed, and some 
 of it was tolerated. The E-senes discarded all forms 
 and ceremonies, and utterly denied the authority of 
 tlie letter of the Jewish sacred books. The Samaritans 
 and Sadducees denied the inspiration of all the books 
 of the Old Testament, except the Pentateuch ; and the 
 latter had no faith in a future state of existence. And 
 yet, Sadducees, and Pharisees, alike sat in Moses' 
 scat and fllled the ofiiceof the great High Priest of 
 the .Jewish religion. 
 
 Ghristiamty, has existed over eighteen and a half 
 centur es. It is intimately connected with Judaism, 
 but has been made to supersede it. Judaism, how- 
 ever, might be true even although Christianisra should 
 be proved false. But if Judaism is proved false it 
 would shake Christianism to its very center. The
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 11 
 
 first converts to Christianity were from the ** common 
 people." To this class Christ chiefly confined his 
 teaching, and with them he mainly associated. He 
 exposed the rottenness and corruption of the Jewish 
 Church, and the hypocrisy of its priesthood ar.d 
 other Church dignitaries and members. This was 
 very pleasing to a class of people who were treated 
 with scorn and contempt by the Church, and made 
 him an acceptable teacher anions: them. The new 
 religion was accepted in Greece, and Rome, for a 
 similar reason. It exposed the frauds and imposi- 
 tions of the Pagan priests, and inculcated the exercise 
 of a spirit of good will even to those who were in the 
 lower ranks of life. The Pagan philosophers, seeing 
 in it a system of pure Theism, which was then the 
 prevalent belief among them, and, admiring its beau- 
 tiful system of moral ethics did not discourage its re- 
 ception, but rather encouraged it, and some of them 
 embraced it. Some of these converts, however, denied 
 its supernatural origin, and Avrote against it. Por- 
 pliyry, a Platonist, wh ) lived in the very m-dst of 
 Christians of the second century, and who accepted 
 the moral teachings of Christianity, nevertheless 
 wrote a book to disprove its miraculous origin. So 
 also, did Celsus, and Julian, one of the Roman Em- 
 perors, who once professed it, afterwards renounced 
 it. For this, these men were branded as apostates 
 and Infidels. Under Constantine, Christianity be- 
 came the religion of the Roman empire, established 
 by law. It soon became corrupted, and in this cor- 
 rupted form held sway over the public mind of 
 Europe and other countries all through the Dark Ages. 
 On the revival of learning, skepticism began to make 
 its appearance again. It increased more and more in
 
 12 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 proportion as the arts and sciences flourished, and &s 
 progress was made in education and civilization. As 
 the science of the laws and phenomena of Nature 
 were made knowa to men, they became sceptical in 
 regard to the supernatural and miraculous, and that 
 skepticism they applied to Christianity. At the 
 present time a wide spread unbelief in all supernatu- 
 ral occurrences and events pervades the minds of all 
 ranks, classes, and conditions of men. It has gained 
 an entrance into the Church itself, aud many of its 
 clergymen and laymen join with men of literature, 
 learning and science, in utterly repudiating the idea 
 that there ever was, is now, or ever will be any in- 
 terruption of, or interference with the steady, uni- 
 form, and uninterrupted operation of Nature and her 
 laws ; and also, in the belief that we must have a 
 religious system based on scientific facts, and not on 
 the mere dreams and visions of visionary men. 
 
 Mohammedanism, originated in the seventh century 
 of the Christian era. It was designed not to super- 
 sede Christianity, nor Judaism, but to supplement 
 both. According to Mahomet, Christ undertook to 
 make men religious b}^ preaching a doctrine of love, 
 and failed. He was commissioned of God to propa- 
 gate religion by fire and sword, to convert men by 
 force of arms. Mohammedanism spread with aston- 
 ishing rapidity. It was established in Arabia, 
 Turkey, Persia, and among several nations in Africa 
 and India. It was planted in the sacred land trodden 
 by the feet of Christ and his Apostles, and supplanted 
 Christianity on its own soil. Mahomet had as nianv, 
 if not more followers than Christ, and a though his 
 religion is six hundred years younger than Christiani-
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 18 
 
 ay, 3'^et there are more real Mohammedans than there 
 are real Christians. 
 
 All four of these religions claim a heavenly origin 
 in a special and direct sense. They do not mutually 
 exclude each other. Judaism, it is true, denies the 
 claims of all the rest, Christianity admits the claims 
 of Judaism, but denies the pretence of the other two ; 
 whereas Paganism admits the supernatural origin 
 of them all, and claims only that it is the purest and 
 best of them all. 
 
 In ihis country the popular opinion is that the re- 
 ligions of Paganism, and Mohammedanism, are 
 spurious and false ; but that the claims of Judaism, 
 and Christianity, are based on an impregnable founda- 
 tion of truth. On the other hand a lari'e and respect- 
 able minority of our citizens deny the claims of each 
 one of them. It is only with the assumption of 
 Judaism, and Christianity, that we have now to do. 
 Those who accept these religions as supernatural 
 revelations from God, do so on the authority of the 
 Hebrew, and Christian Bibles, which they claim con- 
 stitute an infallible standard of religious truth. 
 Everything here, then, depends on the truth or falsi- 
 ty of the assumption in regard to that book. The 
 question is : Is the Bible a special, direct, supernat-n 
 ral, and infallible revelation ? The skirmish is now 
 over, and the battle of opposing arguments begins. 
 Let us examine with carefulness and candor what the 
 disputants have to offer.
 
 14 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Reviews of the Arguments in favor of Supernatural 
 
 1, On the affirmative it is urged that ' 'a rtvelaiionfrom 
 God is possible.'''' This we do not dispute. "What we 
 deny is that the fact of a thing being possible with 
 God proves that the thing has been or will be done. 
 God has power to do many things that he does not do. 
 If i were to say that God has power to make all his 
 creatures happy, therefore, all are, or will be happy, 
 many of the advocates of the Bible would see the 
 fallacy of such reasoning. But the argument is just 
 as good as this for the Bible. 
 
 2. ''Arecelat'wnfrom God is desirable.^'' To this we 
 reply. First, that the fact of a thing being desirable 
 is no proof that the desire will be gratified. ]Men have 
 a thousand desires that are not granted. There are 
 no desires more universal among men than the desire 
 to live and be happy ; and yet men die and are not 
 perfectly happy. The argument in favor of universal 
 salvation, founded on the universal desire of happi- 
 ness, is just as good as this for the Bible. Second, 
 however desirable it may be to have a r<_^velation from 
 God, that fact does not prove that the revelation would 
 be in book form, nor that the Bible is that book. We 
 have a number of books claiming to be revelations, 
 and the argument is just as good in favor of each one
 
 SUPERNATUKAL RELIGION. .15 
 
 of them as it is for the Bible. Besides, a book revela- 
 tion would not be adapted to satisfy the desires of 
 only a small portion of those who have lived in the 
 past, inasmuch, as not more than one quarter of them 
 could read it. 
 
 3. "^ revelation from God is necessa/ry."' Necessary 
 for what ? "To teach us the existence of God, of a 
 future state of being, and the principles of morality 
 and virtue," we are told. But all these were known 
 and taught by men who never saw or heard of the 
 Bible. If a revelation was necessary at all, it was 
 just as necessary for one man as another, for one na- 
 tion as another. But nearly all knowledge of the 
 Bible «vas for thousands of years confined to a very 
 small minority of the human race. The believers in 
 several books claiming to be revelations, may plead in 
 favor of each the necessity of it, with as much propri- 
 ety and force as that plea is made for the Bible. 
 
 3. ''The truths contained in tlie Bible prove U to be a 
 revelation.^'' So think the believers in other books 
 called revelations, and the argument is equally conclu- 
 sive for each. But is every book a revelation that 
 contains truth ? Then the vjorld is full of revela- 
 tions. Common sense teaches us that a book that 
 teaclies truth is hot necessarily a revelation, else 
 Daboll's arithmetic is as perfect a revelation as God 
 ever made. 
 
 5. ''Tlie 100 uderful Prophecies contained in the Bible 
 are conclusive in proof of its divine origin.^'' Most of 
 the biblical prophecies are general in their nature, 
 based on the idea of retribution, and consisting of 
 promises to the Jews, of prosperity if they were obe- 
 dient, and warnings of calamity ia case of disobedi- 
 ence. It IS the easiest thing in the world to make pre-
 
 16 TEra PRO AND CON OF 
 
 dictions iu this way, and to have them verified to the 
 very letter. True prophecies, also, may be based on 
 our knowledge of the history of the past, of the laws 
 of nature, and the law of cause and eflfect. If I were 
 to predict that one hundred years from this time there 
 would be wars and rumorc of wars, that mankind 
 would marry and be given in marriage, that murders 
 would be committed, that there would be storms, tem- 
 pests and earthquakes, the prediction would undoubt- 
 edly be verified in due time. Many of the so-called 
 prophecies are couched in vague, indefinite and ob- 
 scure language. So much is this the case, that they 
 are susceptible of a great variety of interpretations 
 and applications, and have actually been applied in a 
 hundred difi"erent ways. Nothing is more obscure in 
 he Bible than its supposed prophecies. No argument 
 based on them is therefore of any force. Besides, we 
 have outside of the Bible many prophecies more defi- 
 nite, positive, unmistakable and better authenticated 
 than any in it. It is generally supposed that the Old 
 Testament contains a number of prophecies which re- 
 late to Jesus Christ. I hesitate not to say that there 
 is not one that can be proved to have any relation to 
 him whatever. 
 
 6. '* The extraordinary miracles recorded in tlie Bible 
 p ove its divinity. " Is every book that contains a rec- 
 ord of miracles a divine book ? If so, then the Ko- 
 lun, the sacred book of the Hindoos, Gulliver's Trav- 
 els, the Arabian Nights Entertainment, and Jack the 
 Giant-Killer must be divin ■. If these alleged mira- 
 cles could be proved, the argument based on them 
 would have force. But they have never been proved. 
 The authenticity of the historical portions of the Bible 
 has not been proved, and to undertake to prove the
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 17 
 
 miracles by the Bible, and then the Bible by the mir- 
 acles, is ouly reasoning in a circle, a mod«i of reason- 
 iu2j which no honest, intelligent man will adopt. 
 
 7. *' The good infiaence of the Bible in the world shows 
 that it camej^rom God.'" That the influence of the 
 Bible, both for good and evil, has been very great is 
 true. Its good influence we attribute to the good that 
 we admit it contains. Its bad effects we charge not 
 so much to its errors as to the belief in its infallibility. 
 Were it not for this belief, its errors would long since 
 have been discarded and all its good retained, without 
 being to a great extent neutralized by its errors and 
 this pernicious belief. Besides, the fact that a book 
 has exerted a powerful influence in the world, is very 
 far from proving that it is a book of God. The influ- 
 ence of the Bible has scarcely been greater than that 
 of the Koran, the Veda, or the Shaster, but none of 
 these are God's book. The Bible alone is not a suc- 
 cessful civilizer nor moralizerof men. We have been 
 trying the experiment for years. We have sent our 
 Bibles and missionaries into every barbarous and semi- 
 barbarous nation. We have given them a surfeit of 
 each. At last the discovery has been made that 
 schools, and education and knowledge of science and 
 the arts are as efficacious civilizers as the Bible. It 
 is true the Bible and civilization in modern times have 
 accompanied each other. But in ancient times civil- 
 ization existed in places where the Bible was unknown, 
 and, indeed, before it had an existence. It is also 
 true that in countries the most civilized, there we find 
 the greatest number of unbelievers in the infallibility 
 of the Bible. Civilization is to a great extent a mat- 
 ter of climate, race, circumstances and condition. 
 The interior races of men, and the inhabitants of the
 
 18 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 torrid and frigid zones never attain to the same degree 
 of civilization as those who live in more temperate 
 climates. 
 
 8. " The character of the men who icrote the Bible 
 proves it to he an inspired hook. They were etidently 
 honest men., and they claim to have been inspired. If we 
 say they were not^ ice accuse honest meti of attempting to 
 deceive.''^ We answer, 1. Only a few of the writers 
 claim to have been inspired as writers. None of the 
 writers of the New Testament make this claim except 
 the author of the book of Revelations. Neither Mat- 
 thew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James, nor Paul 
 claimed any authority from God or Christ to write 
 what they did. 2. It is quite possible for honest men 
 to suppose themselves to be inspired when they are 
 not. Past history furnishes numerous examples of 
 this kind. To question their inspiration is not to 
 question their honesty. 3. "We know nothing about 
 the character of the biblical writers, for we do not 
 know who they were. This we shall show in the 
 proper place. 
 
 9. ^''The iiumerous persons who hare laid down their 
 lives and become martyrs in the cause of the Bible, is an 
 evidence in its favor.'''' If all the men in the world 
 should lay down their lives to defend a falsehood, it 
 would not make the falsehood true. Every form of 
 religion has had its martyrs, and almost every sect in 
 Christendom has had them too. If the argument 
 from martyrdom proves anything, it proves that all 
 forms of religion are true, and that every sect in the 
 world is right. The argument proves too much, and 
 is, therefore, good for nothing. Martyrdom proves 
 only the honesty of the martyr, and honest men are 
 often mistaken.
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 19 
 
 10. '^The fact that the Bible is accepted by so many 
 learned, wine and good men is much in its favor ^ This 
 argument, like the preceding, proves too much. Many 
 as good men as any have accepted the Bibles of other 
 religions. Some as good as the best have rejected the 
 claims to a supernatural origin of them all. Of course 
 they could not all be right, therefore their respective 
 beliefs prove nothing in regard to the truth or falsity 
 of their belief. 
 
 11. '■''The steady and tenacious beliej of the Jews in the 
 Old Testament, and of Christians in both the Old and 
 Neio Testaments, cannot he accounted for except on the 
 supposition that the events recorded in them actually oc- 
 curredS^ 1. Here again the argument proves too 
 much. How came the Greeks and Romans and other 
 Pagan nations to believe in the wonders and prodigies 
 recorded in their mythology ? or the Hindoos to be- 
 lieve in the Veda, and the Mohammedans in the Korant 
 It is just as easy to account for the belief of one as 
 the other. 2. We have seen that there never was a 
 uniform and universal belief among tlie Jews, in the 
 divine origin of their sacred books. Throughout the 
 whole period of their history unbelievers were found 
 among them, and at times a majority of the nation 
 were so. The same is true of the belief in the New 
 Testament. At a very early period after the compila- 
 tion of that book, its authority was questioned, has 
 been questioned ever since, and is being questioned 
 m'ore and more. 
 
 12. ''The fact that a belief In the Bible enables its pos- 
 sessor to die in peace, and in the comforting assurance of 
 a blissful immortality evinces its divine origin.''^ 1. The 
 argument r rwes too much again. How dies the mor- 
 al man of every form of religion and of every sect ?
 
 20 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 Is it not with the same calmness and peace, and the 
 same comforting hopes ? Does this prove that they 
 are all right in their belief ? Certainly not, but only 
 that they are Tionest in their belief. The manner of 
 one's death is no test of the truth or falsity of his 
 opinions, but only of the sincerity of the dying man, 
 and the strength of Tiis conmctwris. Some of the great- 
 est skeptics have met death with as much courage, 
 calmness and peace as was ever manifested by the 
 strongest believers in the Bible. 2. Nor is it true thai 
 believers in the Bible always die in peace. Instances 
 are not wanting of their djing in the agonies of uttei 
 despair. The manner of one's death depends very 
 much on the temperament, disposition and organiza- 
 tion of the individual, the nature of his disease, and 
 whether he is naturally courageous and hopeful or 
 timid and fearful. 
 
 13. '■'The fact that so many unbelievers renounce tJieir 
 opinions, and hecorne believers when they come to die, is 
 proof that unbelief is icrong.''^ If by this is meant that 
 renunciation of unbelief is a common thing among 
 unbelievers, we deny the alleged fact That some 
 nominal unbelievers may have been induced, through 
 undue influences brought to bear upon them, when 
 prostrated in body and mind, to renounce opinions 
 which they professed, but never possessed, is un- 
 doubtedly true. But in all such cases it is more than 
 probable that the individuals could not tell the diflfer- 
 ence between belief and unbelief. Besides, is a dying 
 hour the proper time to investigate and decide on a 
 question which requires years to properly investigate 
 and make up an opinion upon ? Seldom do intelli- 
 gent men change opinions which are well defined and 
 understood in their own mind, on a dying bed. The
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGIOK. 21 
 
 ignorant and superstitious often seem to do so •, but, 
 even in their case, it is not true as relates to the sub- 
 ject before us, because, on that subject they have no 
 opinions that are worthy of the name. Much secta- 
 rain capital has been sought to be made out of these 
 death-bed renunciations and conversions, by sectarian 
 propagandists and proselyters. It is well known that 
 early impressions on the mind are apt to be the most 
 lasting, and to be uppermost in the case of weak-mind- 
 ed persons, in the time of sickness and death. Only 
 a comparative few among men can rise above the in- 
 fluence of early education. Priests, knowing this, 
 take advantage of this weakness, go to the sick and 
 dying, and, by appeals to their superstitious fears, 
 representing to them that their eternal welfare de- 
 pends on their embracing a particular creed, easily 
 gain their assent to it. In this way Catholic converts 
 to Protestantism are often converted back again, and 
 Heathen proselytes to Christianity recovered back to 
 Paganism. Could anything be more disreputable, 
 more beneath the dignity of sensible men, or more 
 deserving of the scorn of mankind ? 
 
 14 "TA€ style and language of Vie Bible is so beautiful^ 
 its sentiments so sublime, its picture of the life and char- 
 acter of CJwisi 80 much transcends the efforts of human 
 genius, n-nd ike lofiied flights of any man's ideality, as to 
 provp. ihat ' must have had a divine origin^ This is 
 prc< i ly vhat is said by Hindoos and Mohammedans 
 about liicir Bibles. The Mohammedan can find in no 
 book so much beauty and sublimity, both of style and 
 sentiment, as in the Koran. He bases an argument 
 on this for its divine inspiration, and with as much 
 sincerity as it is urged in favor of the Bible. Now 
 what are the facts ? The style of the Koran is mis-
 
 22 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 erably poor and mean, so is that of much of the Bible. 
 
 The Koran contains some as correct and grand ideas 
 about God and religion, as are found anywhere in the 
 Bible. So does the Veda of the Hindoos. If the 
 sublime passages in the Bible prove its divinity, what 
 do its low, mean passages prove ? There is more or 
 less of imagination connected with the belief in 
 Bibles, as is evinced by the fact that the believers in 
 each one of them claim that the one which they pos- 
 sess is by far the superior of all the rest. The follow- 
 ers of the great founders of religious systems in the 
 world are infected with the same imagination. Man- 
 kind are prone to hero worship. They invest their 
 heroes with every quality and attribute that they have 
 power to conceive of. Just as the young lover invests 
 the lady of his love with the attributes of an angel, 
 and supposes her to be something more than human. 
 For hundreds of years the greatest genius of man has 
 been employed in picturing to the mind an ideal Christ. 
 This ideal has been impressed on the minds of men. 
 They go to the New Testament expecting to find it 
 there, and they find what they seek for. Henry Ward 
 Bcecher has written a "Life of Christ," but it is not 
 his life as recorded in the New Testament: it is 
 Beecher's ideal of his jiie. Aside from the miracles 
 attributed to Christ in the New Testament, we can 
 see nothing that involves the idea of the supernatural 
 in his history. 
 
 15. ''''The Bible is rejected only by bad men, and all op- 
 position to it proceeds from hatred to God, to religion and 
 to truth.'" This argument, if it is deserving of that 
 name, is scarcely entitled to a reply. It impeaches the 
 character of every man who denies the divine origin 
 of the Bible, and is therefore a direct iusult to them.
 
 SUTERNATURAL RELIGION. 23 
 
 Were it not that it is contained in so many books, and 
 put forward in so many thousands of pulpits, I should 
 treat it with the silence and scorn that it deserves. 
 The fact that such an argument should be used by 
 those who employ it, may be made the basis of a 
 scathing objection to the belief it is adduced to sus- 
 tain, and will be in the proper place. Let i- suflBce for 
 the present for me to say, that the alleged fact on 
 which it rests we utterly deny. That there are some 
 bad men who reject the popular belief concerning the 
 Bible, we admit. So there are bad men who are 
 staunch believers in the authority of the Bible. The 
 most ignorant portion of community, the criminals of 
 the country, the inmates of our jails and prisons are 
 generally professed believers in superuatuialism and 
 the Bible. Attempts have been made to blacken the 
 character of some prominent men who have been 
 found in the ranks of the unbelievers. The memory 
 of Thomas Paine and YoHaire has been assailed with 
 all sorts of misrepresentation, vituperation and abuse. 
 And for what ? Why, simply because they did not 
 believe in the divine authority of priest or book, and 
 had the courage to openly avow their opinions. We 
 uo not claim tliat these men were saints. But we do 
 claim that, whatever their character can be proved to 
 have been, we can point to worse ones in the ranks of 
 those who held exactly opposite opinions. Voltaire 
 saw in the degradation of the French people, the 
 effect of the influence of a corrupt Church and Priest- 
 hood, which claimed divine authority for their exist- 
 ence, and appealed to the Bible to prove it. He 
 sought to emancipate the people from this cruel men- 
 tal bondage by striking at the cause which produced 
 it. Thomas Paine was a lover of liberty. To this
 
 24 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 noble cause he devoted up his labors and his talents. 
 After having assisted materially in establishing liberty 
 in America, he sought to effect a revolution in Eng- 
 land. He found the whole power of the Church and 
 Clergy arrayed against liberty. He saw that what 
 gave the clerg}' their influence over the people was the 
 belief of the people in the authority of the Bible. 
 To remove this obstacle to human progress out of the 
 way, he struck at what he believed to be the root of 
 this tree of evil. His celebrated work, "The Age of 
 Reason," was a perfect bomb-shell in the camp of the 
 Clergy ; it gave them serious alarm, they have never 
 forgiven him ; from that day till now, he has been 
 one of the best abused men that ever appeared in the 
 world. The strong common sense and keen wit of 
 Paine, and the caustic, biting sarcasm and irony of 
 Yoliaire was seriously annoying to the defenders of 
 the faith ; and as they could not spike their guns, 
 they sought to destroy their influence by ruining their 
 reputation. But what had the character of these men 
 to do with the truth or falsity of their opinions? 
 Even bad men may tell the truth, and the best of men 
 are liable to be mistaken. 
 
 16. ''The renKirkohU converskn of Paul cannot be ac- 
 counted for only on the svpposition that the supernatur- 
 alism of the Bible is true.''' Paul was a Jew. He was 
 thoroughly educated in the faith of Judaism. He be- 
 longed to the strictest of the Jewish sects, and was a 
 strong believer in the marvelous and supernatural. 
 He possessed aa ardent, excitable temperament, and 
 was a Jewish zealot. He was violently opposed to the 
 new Christian sect, and went forth armed "VNith au- 
 thority from the ecclesiastical power in Jerusalem to 
 hunt the Christians to prison and to death. On be-
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 25 
 
 coming better acquainted with them, he found they 
 were peacable, quiet, well dis;posed and harmless. 
 He began to relent ; all the coDScientiousness and 
 kindness of his noble nature was roused into action. 
 He began to have serious doubts in regard to the pro- 
 priety of the course he was pursuing', and as is often 
 the case with men when under the influence of pow- 
 erful excitement, they run to an extreme in one direc- 
 tion, when the rebound comes, they go to an extreme 
 the other way ;.so Paul, from being a mad zealot of 
 Judaism, became an enthusiastic Christian. He first 
 endured the Christians, then pitied them, and then 
 embraced their cause. On his way to Damascus, 
 some natural phenomenon occurred — probably a flash 
 of lightning and clap of thunder, which struck him 
 to the ground, gave him a shock, and threw him into 
 a trance. In this condition he had a vision, but his 
 vision was made up of such material as dreams are 
 made of. He thought he saw Christ, and heard him 
 speak to him, just as we see our friends and converse 
 with them in our dreams. Paul interpreted the phe- 
 nomenon subjectively, and in accordance with his pre- 
 conceived opinions in regard to supernaturalism. He 
 believed it was a special interposition of Providence — 
 a very innocent mistake, and o ic that has been made 
 by thousands of men. Tiie c inversion of Paul, then, 
 is HO more remarkable than those which are occurring 
 every day, of Catholics to Protestantism, and ^ice 
 vei'sa, and of men from one sect to another. 
 
 17. "The great cloud of living witnesses hy loJiose tes- 
 timony tJie Bible is sustained, is proof of its claims. " 
 Who are those witnesses, and what are they ? " The 
 sixty thousand clergymen of this country, and the 
 hundreds of thousands in all parts of the civilized
 
 26 THE PKO AIJD CON OF 
 
 world, together with the multitude of laymen belong- 
 ing to the numerous Christian sects," you may say. 
 But the clergy, are they competent witnesses ? Are 
 they disinterested ? Have they no interest at stake, 
 no sectarian, no personal, selfish ends to serve ? Every 
 one of them is pledged by solemn covenant to main- 
 tain the validity of the Bible, and on doing so, his 
 living depends. Not to do so, is to incur the penalty 
 of ecclesiastical and social ostracism, and the censure 
 and condemnation of the entire Christian world. 
 AVould we believe witnesses in a court of justice, who 
 had such interests as these staked on the issue of the 
 trial ? And the laymen, what do they know about 
 the origin and history of the Bible, and the validity 
 of its claims ? Not one in fifty can give an intelligi- 
 ble account of what he believes or why he believes it. 
 Are the results of calm inquiry, oi deliberate investi- 
 gation, of disinterested criticism to be set aside on 
 such testimony as this ? I leave you to answer. 
 
 18. ''The remarkable preservaiion of tlie Bible, espec- 
 ially of ilie Old Testament, through all the viciasitudes 
 of the history of the Jewish people, proves that a special 
 providential care was exercised over it, and this implies 
 tJie divine authorship of it.'"' The Jewish Scriptures 
 could be read only by a very lew of the common peo- 
 ple. They were in the hands of the priests, to whom 
 th^ care of them was committed. On them they reli- 
 ed for theii' authority as priests of the Jewish religion. 
 What more natural than that they should preserve 
 them with the utmost care, and transmit them to their 
 successors ? But notwithstanding all that has been 
 claimed in regard to the scrupulousness of the Jews 
 in preserving their sacred books, and in preventing 
 any corruption of them, it is a fact well known to all
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 27 
 
 Biblical students, that some of tlieir books were lost, 
 and that the inviolability of the text of those now in 
 existence, has not been preserved. The manuscripts 
 now remaining do not agree, they contain additions, 
 omissions, alterations and mistakes. 
 
 19. '■'TTie fact that there is so much in the Bible that 
 'corresponds with the religious experience of all religious 
 persons^ is proof of its divine origin.^'' Human nature 
 is the same in all men in all ages and countries. The 
 religious experience of all men who are intensely re- 
 ligious, is essentially the same. It is no marvel, then, 
 that there should be found in the religious books of 
 the Jews expressions of feelings, sentiments and ideas 
 corresponding to those which are experienced and ex- 
 pressed at the present day. It is just what we would 
 naturally expect, and if it were not so, it would in- 
 deed be a wonder. 
 
 20. ''''The believer in tTie Bible 7ms tlie '"witness of the 
 Spirit,'* a special revelation from God, assuring him th/it 
 the Bible is infallible in its teachings.'*'' Allowing this to 
 be so, such proof can be evidence only to those who 
 have it, and involves the absurdity of supposing that 
 a revelation from God is not suflficient without anoth- 
 er revelation to confirm it. To the unbeliever such 
 an assertion is proof only of delusion or deception on 
 the part of him who makes it. It is much easier to 
 believe that he is deluded or means to deceive, than it 
 is to believe that God has sanctioned a book as infal- 
 lible which he knows, by incontrovertible proof, to 
 contain mistakes, errors and untruths. Besides, some 
 of the adherents of all the diflerent Bibles and creeds 
 under heaven claim to have the same evidence jn fa- 
 vor of their respective books and creeds. Can it be 
 believed that God reveals to the Mahommedau that
 
 28 THE PRO AI^D CON OP 
 
 the Koran is infallible, to the Hindoo that the Yeda is 
 so, to the Parsee that the Sh aster is, and to the Chris- 
 tian that the Bible is so too ? Is it reasonable to be- 
 lieve that God makes a special revelation to the Cal- 
 vinist to convince him that Calvinism is true, to the 
 Arminian to convict him of the truth of Arminian- 
 ism, and the Universalist to persuade him of the truth 
 of Uuiversalism ? Is it not possible that the strong 
 conviction of the believers in the Bible in the truth 
 of religion is mistaken by them for a strong convic- 
 tion of the infallibility of the book in which the prin- 
 ciples of religion are taught ? But religion is taught 
 in many books, but this does not prove them to be 
 divine books in the sense that the Bible is supposed to 
 be a divine book. 
 
 21. ''The dmine authoi^ity and infallibility of tJie Bible 
 is attested by miracles.'''' But how are we to know that 
 the alleged miracles were wrought ? " Because the 
 Bible says so," we are told. Here is an attempt to 
 prove the Bible true by miracles, and the miracles by 
 the Bible. If a man were to assert that he had wrought 
 a miracle, and when asked for the proof, should say 
 it was true because he said it, would we accept that 
 as proof ? If not, then why should we do it in the 
 other case ? Is not this argument just as good for the 
 Catholic as it is for the Protestant ? The Catholic at- 
 tempts to prove the infallibility of the Church by mir- 
 acles and the miracles by the Church. Such reason- 
 ing is futile and childish, such as full-grown men 
 ought to be ashamed of, and yet many theologians 
 employ it seemingly without ever seeing its utter fu- 
 tility and inconclusiveness. The ancient miracles 
 could not be a witness for the Old Testament, for, be- 
 fore the canon of that book was settled, miracles had
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 29 
 
 ceased in the Jewish Church. The Christian mira- 
 cles could not attest the New Testament, for, long be- 
 fore the canon of that book was settled, miracles had 
 ceased in the Christian Church.
 
 30 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Statement of the Arguments against Supernatural Be- 
 ligion. 
 
 Let us now look at the iirgunients on the negative 
 side of this question. But first we will state our posi- 
 tion, showiuff what it is ru)t, and also wTtut it is. 
 
 Our position is not, that the Bible is a tissue of 
 falsehoods, and, therefore, ought to be suppressed, It 
 is not that it does not contain much valuable instruc- 
 tion. We regard it as we regard all other natural 
 gifts of God, as useful, if properly used, as destruct- 
 ive if misused. There is no gift of God that is not 
 liable to be perverted and abused. Even the religious 
 faculties of man may be misdirected and perverteti, 
 as they often are. Our position is not against the 
 Bible, as a book, but against the belief in it as an au- 
 thoritative book, by which our religious opinions are 
 to be tested and tried. 
 
 The be. levers in the divine origin of the Bible as 
 sert that it is a special revelation from God, the de- 
 sign of which is to impart to mankind a knowledge 
 of true religion, and also of God's plan and method 
 of saving men from sin, and securing their happiness 
 in a future state of being. From all this we dissent. 
 
 1. Our first argument on tlie negative is, tluii tlie idea 
 of 8uch a retelation is conJbrary to all analogy. On all 
 other subjects pertaining to the interest and happiness
 
 bUPKlCNA'l Ux^aL. religion. 31 
 
 of man, God has left tliem to the guidance and direc- 
 tion of their natural powers. He has given us no 
 revelation to teach us the arts or the truths of science. 
 No revelations on the subject of agriculture, medi- 
 cine, diet, laws of life and health, anatomy, physiology, 
 astronomy, etc. Why then should it be supposed 
 necessary on the subject of religion ? 
 
 2. Such a revelation is not desirable^ because it would 
 not be beneficial. The mind, like the body, requires 
 exercise. On it both depend for health, activity and 
 strength. If God had provided a great store-house of 
 food and clothing all ready for our use whenever our 
 wants required, and we had nothing to do but to go 
 to the fountain and get our supplies, the effect would 
 be to completely demoralize the human race. We 
 should soon become lazy, idle and indolent. No im- 
 provement or progress would be made. In like man- 
 ner, if God had provided a book, containing aU the 
 religious and moral truth necessary for us to know, 
 and we had only to go there and find it, the same dis- 
 astrous efiects would be produced on the minds of 
 men. All inquiry and investigation would be useless, 
 we should sink into apathy, inactivity and ultimate 
 imbecility. 
 
 3. The Bible has Twt accomplisJied what its believers sup- 
 pose it was designed to effect. It does n/)t impa/rt to the 
 minds of those wlio accept ity uniform informaiion. In- 
 stead of uniting men in opinion, it has driven them 
 farther apart. Instead of lessening the number of 
 conflicting opinions, it has increased them. It has in- 
 creased rather than diminished the number of warring 
 sects. It has , not made men more tolerant toward 
 each other, but more intolerant; no more charitable, 
 but less so. It has not diminished wars in the earth.
 
 33 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 but very greatly added to the number. It has not 
 made men less cruel, but ii.ore savage, sanguinary and 
 inhuman. 
 
 4. The effect that the belief in the auihoHty of the Bible 
 has, on those who believe it, shows that it is erroneous. 
 Many of them suppose that, as the Bible is a flnality, 
 God's last word to man, no more truth is needed, no 
 further progress is to be made, no further discoveries 
 are desirable. Hence they sink down into utter inac- 
 tivity and stupidity of mind. This belief, too, engen- 
 ders a spirit the very opposite of that of religion. It 
 makes men bigoted, uncharitable, conceited, dog- 
 matic, dictatorial and tyrannical. They assume that 
 they are certainly right, and that all who do not agree 
 VHth them are as certainly in the wrong. They cannot 
 be mistaken, for, do they not beheve just what God 
 has spoken, and is not what he has spoken true ? 
 They seem to imbibe a spirit of enmity against all 
 who do not agree with them in opinion. Nothing of- 
 fends them so much as to have the correctness of their 
 opinions questioned ; and whoever does so, they are 
 ready to pronounce an unregenerate sinner, a hater of 
 God and religion. We do not say that it has this ef- 
 fect upon all ; we cheerfully admit that even many 
 are too good by nature, to be materally injured by it. 
 But we do say that this has been, and is its general 
 tendency in the world. And this fact we urge as an 
 evidence that the belief is wrong. 
 
 5. The fact that the Bible is 'oery obscure in its teach- 
 ings, is an evidence against it. We known that it is 
 often claimed that it is perfectly clear and plain in its 
 inculcations, so much so as that " even a fool need not 
 err therein." Every man thoroughly acquainted with 
 it, knows better. Even the book itself admits that
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 83 
 
 there are some things in it "hard to understood." 
 Bishop Watson, when asked what the doctrines of 
 Christianity were, replied, "it is mucli easier to tell 
 where they are, than what they are." This was a can- 
 did confession, remarkable as coming from a defend- 
 er of the faith. If we ask the believers in the Bible, 
 what is Christianity, we shall get a thousand different 
 answers, and each one who answers will confidently 
 appeal to the Bible to prove that he is right. These 
 conflicting opinions, too, are held by men of equal 
 learning, talents and piety. How obscure must be the 
 teachings of a book from which such conflicting sys- 
 tems of theology can be deduced, as Calvinism, Ar- 
 minianism and Universal ism ? The Bible has been 
 invoked to prove an astonishing variety and number 
 of opposite opinions, such as no other book has since 
 the world began. Among them are the following ; 
 That God is a being of love, and that he is a God of 
 vengeance ; that man is by nature totally depraved, 
 and that his nature is divine ; that there is ^ personal 
 Devil, and that there is not ; that Christ was God, and 
 that he was no more than man ; that he was a super- 
 angelic being, and was not ; that he existed before 
 his appearance on earth, and that he did not ; that 
 Christ died to appease God's wrath toward his crea- 
 tures, and that he died to commend his love to them ; 
 that Christ made an atonement for the sins of men, 
 and that no sin can go unpunished ; that only a few 
 of mankind will be saved, and that all will be. These, 
 to be sure, are mainly doctrinal points, but even on 
 the subject of practical morality and religion, the be- 
 lievers in the Bible are no better agreed than other 
 men. They appeal to the book to prove that slavery 
 is right, and that it is wrong ; that to use intoxicating
 
 34 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 drinks is right, and that to do so is a crime ; that pol- 
 ygamy and concubinage are no sins, and that they are 
 exceedingly sinful ; that it is the duty of Christians 
 to observe one day in seven as peculiarly sacred, and 
 that it is not ; that all Christians ought to be baptized, 
 and that none should be ; that a part of religion con- 
 sists in the observance ot forms, ceremonies and or- 
 dinances, and that it is perfectly form-free, and en- 
 joins the observance of no set forms whatever. Xow 
 to say that such a book constitutes an infallible guide 
 for the children of men, is as preposterous os to assert 
 hat the sun shines at midnight. 
 
 6. '■'TJie Bible may be appealed to, and often is, to sanc- 
 tion the worst of vices and enormities. Hatred of ene- 
 mies; did not David boast that he hated his enemies 
 with "perfect hatred"? Did he not denounce upon 
 them the most grievous curses ? Does not God hate 
 those who hate him, and can it be wrong to imitate 
 his example? Plurality of tc ires; was not poly gam}^ 
 tolerated among the Jews? Keeping of mistresses ; 
 did not holy men of old have their concubines ? JRe- 
 taliation and revenge; does not God avenge himself on 
 his enemies ? and was npt the Levitical law founded 
 on the principle of rendering evil for evil ? Slavery; 
 was it not sanctioned by Moses ? Slaughtering of pris- 
 oners taken in zcar, and even of women arid ch'''dren; 
 did not God command his people to do it, and did not 
 the holy prophet Samuel, set an example of this kind, 
 by hewing Agag in pieces " before the Lord ?" Cheat- 
 ing; did not Jacob's father-in-law cheat him, and did 
 not Jacob pay him off in his own coin ? Lying; did 
 not God command it on a certain day ? Deception; 
 was not Samuel directed by the Lord to practice it ? 
 Treuchery; 4i4 »ot Bahab pretend to afford protectiori
 
 BUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 85 
 
 to a man who was fleeing from his enemies, and then 
 betray and rob him of his life ? and is she not com- 
 mended for her faith ? Was not Jacob treacherous 
 to his own brother, in taking advantage of his neces- 
 sities, and robbing him of his birthright ? and also to 
 his own father, in procuring from him the blessing 
 which he designed for Esau ? Intolerance; does not 
 the Bible everywhere demand belief of men as the 
 first and indispensable requisite, apparently, without 
 regard to proofs and evidences ? and did not Paul pro- 
 nounce curses on all who did not believe his Gospel ? 
 Persecution; were not the Jews commanded to destroy 
 all the inhabitants of Canaan who would not adopt 
 their religion ? 
 
 It may be said that most of these practices are con- 
 demned in the New Testament. So they are, but the 
 New Testament is a part of the Bible, and the fact 
 named only shows the conflicting nature of the teach- 
 ings of that book. Many of the men who practiced 
 the vices above named, are even in the New Testa- 
 ment, held up to view as exceptionally pious, holy 
 and worthy men ; how can it be expected that believ- 
 ers in the divine authority of the Bible can escape the 
 contagion of their example? 
 
 7. "ijr it was necessary for God to make a revelation 
 to his creatures in book form, it is but reasonable to be- 
 lieve tJiat lie would protect it in such a manner as that his 
 design in giving it could not be defeated. But such is not 
 the COM with the Bible. ^'' A book containing a revela- 
 tion, and designed to be transmitted to future genera- 
 tions throughout all time, should be accompanied 
 with external and internal evidences so overwhelming 
 as to command tlie assent of every one that examined 
 its claims. If it w&s in manuscript writings, and r^-
 
 36 THE PRO A^'D CON OP 
 
 quired to be copied frequeutly, if it was written in 
 one language, and translated into a number of others, 
 the same being who communicated it at ^rst, fehould 
 superintend the copying and translation of it in such 
 a way as to prevent all mistakes. We should know 
 who the original writers were, when it was written, 
 and in what place. We ought to know when it was 
 translated, and by whom. In fine, we ought to have 
 a well-authenticated account of its origin and history. 
 The Bible lacks every one of these essential requisites. 
 The history of no book in the world is involved in 
 more obscenity than that. Except the writings of 
 Paul, we do not know when the books of the Bible 
 were written, the particular place where, the time 
 when, nor the persons by whom. But there are some 
 things we do know about it, and what we do know is 
 very much against it as a revelation. 
 
 The Old Testament is a collection of books which 
 the Jews during some periods of their history deem- 
 ed sacred ; at otlier times the}' did not so regard them. 
 The Kew Testament is a collection of books whicl; 
 were written some time during the first and second 
 centuries of the Christian era. They were selected 
 from a great number of similar books in about the 
 third century. Before their collection and after, they, 
 and many others beside, were accepted as inspired. 
 The Old and New Testaments were written in lan- 
 guages which have ceased to be spoken. The books 
 of the Bible existed for man}- years in manuscripts 
 onl}', and have been frequently copied. Our English 
 translation was made, not fjom the original manu- 
 scripts, but from copies ,of them, not one of which, 
 of the Old Testament, was older than the ninth cen- 
 tury of the Christian era, and not one of the New
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 87 
 
 older than the sixth. The different copies of these 
 manuscripts vary considerably from each other. There 
 has been various translations of the Bible into the 
 English language, no two of which are exactly alike. 
 Dr. Bellamy made a translation, which made some 
 important passages say exactly the reverse of what 
 they are made to say in the common English version. 
 It is universally admitted by the learned that the 
 copyists did make mistakes in the copying, that the 
 translators did make mistakes in translating, and 
 many of them admit that the collectors of the books 
 made mistakes in selecting. It is also admitted that 
 the copies from which our Bible was translated con- 
 tained passages which were not in the original text. 
 Our version, then, contains interpolations, mistrans- 
 lations and supplied words. The division of it into 
 chapters and verses, the supplied words, the heading 
 in the upper margin of the pages, and over the chap- 
 ters, the copying, the collecting and translation, is all 
 the work of fallible men, for whom no divine guid- 
 ance is claimed. Is this the care God exercises over 
 his revelation ? If he thinks no more of it than this, 
 why should we concern ourselves about it ? 
 
 The belief in the BihU as a revelation, is calculated to 
 perpetuate some of the, most degrading superstitions. Most 
 of its believers understand it to teach the existence of 
 a Devil, with his millions of kindred and subordinate 
 evil spirits, disputing with the Almighty the throne of 
 the Universe, and exerting a malign intluence over the 
 hearts and minds of men. The tendency of this be- 
 lief is to induce men to keep a sharp lookout for this 
 imaginary fiend, to the entire neglect of the real 
 Devil that every man carries about with him in his 
 heart. The Bible, too, is understood to sanction the
 
 88 THE PRO A1;D con OP 
 
 belief in necromancy, fortune-telling, witchcraft, 
 sorcery, magic, special providences, and that diseases 
 both of mind and body are produced by evil spirits. 
 What wonder is it, then, that so many are led astray 
 by the lying wonders of Matthias, and Joe Smiths, 
 of the present day ? What hope can there be for the 
 improvement of men who believe that the affairs of 
 this life, the events which take place in the world, and 
 the phenomena of nature, are all the results of a 
 special providence, without regard to order or the 
 natural sequence of cause and effect ? Certainly 
 none; for, according to this view there can be no such 
 thing as science in any department of nature; in other 
 words, the fact that a phenomena occurred to-day, is 
 no proof that it ever occurred before, or ever will 
 again. Hence, those who hold this view are full of 
 the belief in the marvelous ; are continually talking 
 about special providences either in their favor, or 
 against them ; are constantly dodging some miracu- 
 lous thunderbolt from heaven, or anticipacing some 
 supernatural interposition in their behalf. It is not 
 a real world in which they live, but one wholly ideal 
 and imaginary. Solid truth, the facts of science, a 
 knowledge of nature and her laws, has for them no 
 interest, and possesses for them no charms. Until 
 this spell on the minds of otherwise intelligent men is 
 broken, how can they be emancipated from the bonds 
 of superstition ? 
 
 9. Tim helUf in the amthority of the Bible blinds and 
 hewUders the minds of men. The Bible contains a 
 record of prodigies the most astounding ; of marvels 
 the most wonderful, of miracles the most marvelous, 
 and statements the most incredible. Hence, it con- 
 flicts with common sense, shocks our credulity, and
 
 SUPERNATURAT- RELIGION. 39 
 
 does violence to our reasou. The man who believes 
 it is put in a mental condition to believe almost any- 
 thing. All power to distinguish between things 
 reasonable and unreasonable, credible and incredible, 
 is overcome. He believes, not on evidence, but on 
 authority alone; he does not dictate his own belief, 
 but has it dictated to him. Like the young of birds, 
 he opens his mouth and swallows whatever is given 
 him without reference to its quality. They are in the 
 situation of the clergyman, who, in defending the 
 Bible, said, *' the Bible says that a whale swallowed 
 Jonah, and I believe it, and if it said that Jonah 
 swallowed the whale I would believe that. " Now, 
 truth is the natural food of the mind, as bread is of 
 the body; and truth must be as wisely adapted to the 
 powers and faculties of the mind, as food is to the 
 taste, and digestive powers of the body. Food that 
 is distasteful and indigestible, is unwholesome, so that 
 the mental and moral diet, that violates our reason, 
 shocks our moral sense, and wounds the best affections 
 of our nature, must be spurious. There are thousands 
 of good men and women who profess to believe in 
 things which they admit look to them unreasonable, 
 and shocking to their feelings ; but, nevertheless, they 
 feel obligated to believe as they do, on the sole au- 
 thority of the Bible. Such persons are the miserable 
 victims of a mental and moral tyranny that demands 
 the best efforts of the best men to overthrow. 
 
 10. '''■The great argument usually employed to make 
 converts to the belief in the Bible, not only betrays a want 
 of confidence in it, orv the part of tlwse who use it, but it 
 constitutes aground of objection to it,^^ The principal 
 argument usually relied on to propagate this belief in 
 the world is that which is by far the most successful,
 
 40 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 and leaves us with but one alternative. It is this, 
 ''Believe, or be damned." Thousands of persons 
 who are as ignorant of the history and origin of the 
 Bible as the veriest heathen on earth, will go into the 
 pulpit and proclaim to their hearers doctrines the 
 most shocking to reason and common sense, and when 
 asked for the evidence of their truth, will tell us that 
 "God is the authority for their truth." "When asked 
 how we are to know that, the answer will be, "they are 
 taught in the Bible — which is God's word — and- we 
 must accept them or be damned." Could arrogance 
 and presumption go farther than this ? Here it is as- 
 sumed not onlj-- that the Bible is an infallible book, 
 but that they correctly understand a book which 
 thousands have attempted to explain, no two of whom 
 ever agreed in its interpretation. Is this the way to 
 treat rational beings ? Can such persons know any- 
 thing about the science of mind ? Have they the 
 least conception of the necessary connection between 
 evidence and belief ? Do they not proceed on the 
 supposition that rational belief can be induced by 
 bribes and threats ? Or if they are not ignorant of 
 the fact that a sufficient amount of evidence will irre- 
 sistibly produce conviction on the mind, and that to 
 undertake to gain the assent of men to the truth of 
 any doctrine b}^ bribes and threats, is only to try to 
 make them hypocrites, and mental and moral cowards 
 and Rlaves ; then, we ask, are they not the greatest 
 mountebanks that ever "played fantastic tricks be- 
 fore high heaven," and do they not insult the under- 
 standing of man ? Do the teachfers of scientific truth 
 first give their lesson, and then offer rewards to those 
 who believe their inculcations, and threaten punish- 
 uient to those who do not ? Are they alarmed when
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 41 
 
 the truthfulness of their teachings is questioned, and 
 do they threaten with the judgments of God and the 
 wrath of heaven all who doubt or disbelieve them ? 
 If not, why is it any more necessary to do so to en- 
 force religious truth than any other kind of truth ? 
 If teachers in any other department of knowledge 
 were to proceed in this way, they would very soon be 
 destitute of pupils, and it is certainly a marvel how 
 intelligent men can put themselves under the teach- 
 ing of men who are constantly insulting them. If 
 such teachers do not know any better, they are enti- 
 tled to our pity; if they do know better, they are 
 more entitled to our pity still, but the course they pur- 
 sue is deserving only of the scorn and contempt of 
 mankind. Persons who are conscious they have truth 
 to ofier, and believe they can present an abundance of 
 evidence to sustain it, will not fool away their time by 
 resorting to arts and tricks, nor promises, nor threats in 
 order to commend it to their hearers. The fact, then, 
 that religious teachers do resort to these means is proof 
 that they have not entire confidence in the truth of 
 their doctrines, and that having no hope of producing 
 conviction on the minds of men by evidence, they rely 
 on appeals to their superstitious fears. The fact, too, 
 that there is such alarm in their ranks whenever the 
 bulwark behind which they have entrenched them- 
 selves is assailed, is proo^ that they doubt the impreg- 
 nability of their position. The man who is afraid of 
 Truth, or fears that she cannot take care of herself, or 
 that it is not for the interest of the people to know 
 the whole truth, is a traitor to God, to truth, and to 
 man. . 
 
 As to the religious and moral truths taught in the 
 New Testament, such as the existence of God, his
 
 42 THE PRO A2fD CON OF 
 
 fatherhood, the brotherhood of the race, the immor- 
 tality of man and the golden rule, they need no con- 
 tirmation from miracles, from books nor from men. 
 They are their own authority and their own proof. 
 They have the "witness of the spirit," and "the 
 spirit is given to every man to profit with all." All 
 forms of religion contain the elements of one univers- 
 al religion. The dogma it is that has set man at war 
 with man. More religion and less dogma the great 
 want of humanity. 
 
 Eeader, both sides are before you, judge ye what is 
 rio-ht.
 
 SUPKUiSATLKAl. KiiLlGION. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Pa/rticular Remarks on the Supernatural Origin of Chris- 
 tianity, and Statement of the Views of nationalists 
 on Inspiration^ JRevelation^ and Beligion. 
 
 The Epistles usually attributed to Paul are his gen- 
 uine writings, except that to the Hebrews. This lat- 
 ter was written by some learned Jew, who was a con- 
 vert to Christianity. The authors of these epistles 
 were to a great extent the real founders of Christian- 
 ity, i. e., in the form in which it exists in the creeds of 
 the various Christian sects. The doctrines of these 
 creeds are based more on these epistles (not always 
 correctly interpreted, to be sure), than on the teach- 
 ings of Christ recorded in the four Gospels. To 
 these epistles we are indebted for the origin of the 
 doctrines of the Fall, Original Sin, Total Depravity, 
 Predestination, Election and Reprobation, Miraculous 
 Change of Nature, Vicarious Atonement and Univer- 
 sal Salvation, by Christ. 
 
 The difficulty to account for the origin of Christian- 
 ity, without supposing it to have been established by 
 supernatural and miraculous means I fully appreciate. 
 The problem was to me a puzzle and a mystery for 
 years. It was only after long and diligent research 
 and investigation, that I was able to arrive at a satis- 
 factory conclusion. I have been abundantly reward- 
 ed for my pains. It is now clear to me that it is no
 
 44 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 more difficult to account for the origin of Christianity 
 than for the origin of Brahminism in India, Confu- 
 cianism in China, Parseeism in Persia, Mohammedan- 
 ism in Turkey, or Mormonism in the United Slates. 
 
 We will state what are the main facts bearing on 
 the question, and the conclusions to be deduced from 
 these facts. Modern criticism has proved, so far as 
 the nature of the case admits of proof, 
 
 1. That the five books of the Old Testament, com- 
 monly attributed to Moses, were not written by him, 
 but were compiled hundreds of years after his death, 
 partly from some fragments left by him and others, 
 and partly from oral tradition. 
 
 2. The other books of the Old Testament are made 
 up of partly genuine, and partly spurious writings. 
 
 3. The Gospels were not written by the Evangelists 
 to whom they are ascribed — i. e., in the form in which 
 we now have them — but were compiled after the death 
 of their reported authors, partly from records left by 
 them, to which many additions were made derived 
 from oral tradition. 
 
 4. Notwithstanding, the Bible contains many valua- 
 ble and important truths, noble and sublime senti- 
 ments, excelleuL moral precepts and many beauties, 
 we are not w^arranted to believe that they had any 
 other than a perfectly natural origin. 
 
 5. The numerous mistakes, errors, contradictions, 
 inconsistencies and absurdities contained in the Bible, 
 justify us in believing that it is not an infallible stand- 
 ard of truth, not authoritative in its teachings, not the 
 product of supernatural inspiration, and that nothing 
 is to be believed simply because it is taught in that 
 book. 
 
 6. The several books of the Old and New Testament
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 45 
 
 were compiled, collected and published in two separ- 
 ate volumes by fallible men, who acted without any 
 direct divine sanction or authority. 
 
 7. Christianity is not a supernaturally revealed and 
 inspired religion, miraculously authenticated, but is a 
 natural product of the human mind ; the result of long 
 ages of progress and development of religious thought 
 and ideas. 
 
 Without doubt many of the marvelous stories re- 
 corded in the Bible had a historic basis, but they were 
 not recorded at the time the events are said to have 
 occurred, but long after, and at a lime when the orig- 
 inal facts had become greatly exaggerated. The com- 
 piler and writer believed them to be true, and they 
 obtained ready evidence among a people who were 
 very ignorant, very credulous, full of the belief in 
 supernaturalism, and ready to endorse anything that 
 tended to glorify their nation or their religion. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is in the books both of the Old 
 and New Testaments quite an element of pious fraud 
 and imposition. Almost all history is written in the 
 interest of a nation, party or sect, Bible history not 
 excepted. A comparison of the books of kings and 
 chronicles, shows that the latter was written in the 
 interest of the kingdom of Judah, and with a view to 
 glorify David the great Thecesatic king. Hence, it 
 omits all mention of some of the worst acts of David, 
 and represents him to have been a peculiar and excep- 
 tional favorite of heaven. The book of kings is far 
 more candid and impartial, and tells the wliole truth 
 about the personal character of David and the doings 
 of his kingdom. Between these two books there are 
 other conflicting statements which no ingenuity has 
 succeeded in reconciling.
 
 46 THE PKO AITD CON OP 
 
 The gospels — however* blind some may be to the 
 fact — ^bear internal evidence of having been written in 
 a partizan spirit and with a polemic aim. The first 
 and third gospels especially, were written to prove 
 that Christ was the true Jewish Messiah. To prove 
 this, they relied mainly on establishing that he poss- 
 essed miraculous powers. Hence, they exaggerated 
 purely natural occurencies into miracles, and collected 
 and recorded all the wild and extravagant legends 
 that had descended to their day and with which the 
 air was filled. In order to make it appear that Christ 
 answered to the description of the Jewish Messiah 
 contained in the Old Testament, who, it was supposed, 
 must be a descendant of David, they related the silly, 
 ridiculous and absurd legend relating to his miracu- 
 lous birth ; a story which defeats its own object, inas- 
 much, as if it proves anything, it is, that he was in 
 nowise a blood relation of that personage. Besides, 
 the legend is self contradictory, and contains many 
 genealogical mistakes and errors. In order to prove 
 that he was a subject of prophecy, they quote and 
 apply to him passages which have no more relation to 
 him than to Josephus, or any other man conspicuous 
 in Jewish history of that time. 
 
 The fourth gospel was written to prove not only 
 that Christ was Messiah, but that he had a pre-exist- 
 ence and answered to the Logos of Plato. It is the 
 production of an Alexandrine Christian, who sought 
 to blend the philosophy of Plato with Christianity, 
 and thereby commend it to the favor of the Pagan 
 .philosophers. This book, the writings of Paul, and 
 the epistle to the Hebrews, constitute the first great 
 departure from the simplicity of the teachings of 
 Christ, which finally culminated i» the ^tablishmwt
 
 SUrERNAT[7RAL RELIGION. 47 
 
 of that particular form of Christianity known as 
 Catholicism. Let it be remembered that at the time 
 when these books were written it was an almost uni- 
 versally received maxim, that it was ris^ht to lie for 
 the truth, and to deceive those who require to be 
 deceived. Nothing was more common than to forge 
 books and ascribe their authorship to distinguished 
 persons in order to give them authority among the 
 common people. We may state, also, that of all the 
 miracles recorded in the Bible not. one was ever sub- 
 mitted to a scientific test. 
 
 The early history of every nation is a mixture of 
 truth and falsehood, fact and fiction, legend and tra- 
 dition. Even our own early history is by no means 
 entirely destitute of the mythologic element. How 
 much more is this true of Jewish history and of the 
 history oflChristianity ? 
 
 The whole superstructure of supernatural Christian- 
 ity is made to rest by Paul on the fact of the resur- 
 rection of Christ from the dead. Now, that this al- 
 leged fact is intrinsically improbable no one will 
 deny. It ought, then to be sustained by the most un- 
 impeachable testimony, the most indubitable evi- 
 dence ; but we liave not the direct testimony of a 
 single eye witness of the event. Not one of the New 
 Testament writers says he was present and saw him 
 rise. The four different accounts of the affair are 
 conflicting. The only points in which they agree, 
 are: first, that Christ's body was laid in the tomb of 
 a man who was a friend to him ; and second, that 
 when the tomb was visited on Sunday morning the 
 body was not there ; both of wliich statements we can 
 very readily believe, without supposing that the body 
 was dea^ wheu placed there, or that a mau who ww
 
 48 THE PKO AlsD CON OF 
 
 really dead had been restored to life. It is much 
 easier to believe that the body was in a state of swoon, 
 from which it was restored and afterwards released 
 from the tomb ; or, that if dead, the body was taken 
 away by secret friends and kept out of sight. We have 
 plenty of witnesses who say ''he was seen alive'" after 
 his crucifixion ; but not one who says, Isaw him, except 
 Paul, and he only in a vision. I need not say that 
 such testimony is not within the rules of evidence, 
 nor that it would not be admitted to prove anything 
 in a court of justice, especially so astounding an oc- 
 currence as the resurrection of a dead man to life and 
 his subsequent ascension into heaven. 
 
 There is much better evidence to prove that mira- 
 cles equally astounding as any recorded in the Bible, 
 were wrought in the second, third and fourth centu- 
 ries of the Christian era. For, in the latter case, we 
 have the testimony of hundreds of persons, and among 
 them, no less than nine Bishops of the Church who 
 affirm in the most solemn manner that they saw these 
 miracles wrought. And even in our own day — if we 
 can credit human testimony on this subject — the world 
 is full of miracles. In our own country — the most en- 
 lightened in the world — within the past half century, 
 we have seen a Matthias pursuading otherwise intelli- 
 gent men to -believe, not only that he was a prophet 
 of the Lord, but that he was the very and eternal God 
 himself. "We have witnessed the rise of a sect of 
 Religionists who have sent their apostles to every 
 civilized nation on the globe ; making converts in 
 each, and basing their claims mainly on the possession 
 of miraculoiLS powers. We have seen another sect 
 arise, claiming, not miraculous powers to be sure, but 
 extraordinary gifts of healing, prophecy, inspiration,
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 49 
 
 direct revelation, etc., and they have made more con- 
 verts in thirty years than Christianity did in three 
 centuries. The power to work miracles has always 
 been claimed by the Catholic Church, and the same 
 claim is made by the Mormon Church. We have the 
 testimony under oath of living men who certify that 
 they were eye witnesses of the miracles said to have 
 been wrought by Joe Smith, the founder of the Mor- 
 mon Church. And that Church, too, claims to have 
 a book containino; a supernatural and miraculous rev- 
 elation from God. If such things can be in this age 
 of the world, what might not have been done eighteen 
 hundred years ago ? 
 
 But, we shall be told — as we have been thousands of 
 times — that to the Bible we are indebted for onr civil- 
 ization, retinementof manners, elevation of character, 
 and for the progress of science and the arts. I greatly 
 marvel that an argument for the supernatural origin 
 of the Bible, should be based on this ground. The 
 facts do not sustain it. Civilization existed before the 
 Bible was known. The Hebrew Bible did not elevate 
 the Jews in the scale of civilization above the Pagan 
 nations around them did not make them any less cruel, 
 treacherous nor inhuman; nor any more honest or 
 faithful. It did not preventthem from carrying on a war 
 of invasion against the inhabitants of Canaan, and on the 
 plea that they were Idolators, and therefore, abhored 
 of God, making an indiscriminate slaughter of all who 
 would not submit to their authority and give up to 
 them their possessions. It did not prevent a civil war 
 among them, nor the establishment of two separate 
 kingdoms, between which an almost incessant war was 
 carried on for hundreds of years. It did not hinder 
 them from siding with the priests in their antagonism
 
 50 ^ THE PRO A^JD CON OF 
 
 to the prophets, nor from persecuting these, the best 
 men ot their nation "from city to city." In spite of 
 the Bible, they set up in both kingdoms that very 
 idolatry which they came there ostensibly to destroy. 
 It did not save them from being proved haughty, 
 dictatorial, exclusive and domineering ; nor did its 
 influence stay the hand of vengeance against Jesus 
 Christ, the greatest living teacher of his time. 
 
 In our time, to the Hebrew Bible, we have super- 
 added the Christian Bible, the latter supposed to be 
 an improvement on the other. Both are bound in the 
 same volume and we have the influence of both. We 
 shall speak of it as one. That its influence has been 
 salutary in many respects we very cheerfully grant ; 
 but we claim that this is owing not to its being accep t- 
 ed as a supernatural revelation, but to the plain, 
 practical, and common sense moral truths which it 
 contains. It is these that give it its vitality and its 
 hold on the veneration and love of mankind. It is 
 these that have saved it from oblivion. Instead of its 
 having been a great instrument in promoting science 
 and civilization, the car of human progress has rolled 
 on, and science and civilization have prospered in spite 
 of its influence. Scarcely a scientific truth has been 
 discovered, or a reform proposed that has not been 
 opposed by the whole weight and power of the 
 Church, which is the depository of the Bible. The 
 Church opposed the doctrines of modern astronomers 
 and geologists and philosophers, until the advanced 
 opinions of the people compelled it to relax some- 
 what. In the incipient stages of the temperance and 
 anti-slavely reforms, the Churcn arrayed itself against 
 them. And how is it with Christian nations as com- 
 pared with others not Christian ? Are they any more
 
 etJPERNATUKAL RELIGION. . 51 
 
 f.iithful to tiieir treaties than the Turks ? Any more 
 peaceable than the Chinese, the Japanese, or the 
 Hindoos ? I hesitate not to say, that in all the records 
 of knavery and cruelty we shall search in vain to find 
 a parallel to the frauds, cruelties, inhumanities and 
 enormities that have been perpetrated by men who 
 professed to receive the Bible as a revelation from 
 God, and to be guided by its precepts. Witness the 
 treachery to his own kindred, the fratricidal and mat- 
 ricidal murders of Constantine, the first Christian 
 emperor, whose private character was even worse 
 than that of Caligula or Nero. Kemember the per- 
 secutions of each other of the two great branches of 
 the Church, viz : the Catholic and Protestant, carried 
 on for years and involving the destruction of millions 
 of human lives. Think of the horrors of the massacre 
 on St. Bartholomew's day. Call to mind the history 
 of the Inquisition, that terrible engine of destruction 
 which existed during five centuries ; during which 
 every possible engine of torture that ingenuity could 
 invent, was employed to inflict sufiering and death on 
 the bodies and minds of innocent persons. Recollect 
 the thirty years religious wars in Germany, the nu- 
 merous wars that have been carried on in Europe by 
 the Christian kings and princes of that country ; no- 
 tice the treatment of the natives of this country by 
 their Christian conquerors, the stupenduous frauds 
 that were practised upon them, and the vices that 
 were introduced among them ; see the Christian 
 government of England deriving a large revenue from 
 India by taxing the inhabitants for the privilege of 
 worshiping Jugernaut ; see her send her mission- 
 aries of the gospel, and her men of war into the ports 
 of China compelling the inhabitants to accept her
 
 52 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 migsionaries and buy her opium, under the penalty 
 of having their cities bombarded and their lives de- 
 stroyed by the murderous cannon. Look now to our 
 country and reflect on our late war, carried on by 
 fellow-Christians and fellow-countrymen. How terri- 
 ble the conflict, how fierce the combatants, what woe, 
 what sorrow, what desolation, what destruction of 
 property and life ; and yet the two contending parties 
 were cheered on, and sometimes led by men who, 
 not only believed in the Bible, but professed to be the 
 ordained teachers of the gospel of the Prince of Peace, 
 whose mission to our world they admitted to be a 
 mission of peace and good will to men. Instances 
 have been known of clergymen appealing to the Bible 
 to sanction the greatest of outrages, even the seduction 
 of youth and innocence. 
 
 When I reflect on the crimes against humanity, I 
 am led to exclaim, are these the actions of men, or is 
 the idea true that infernais have assumed the shape 
 and appeared in the guise of men ? Where, in all the 
 history of the world, is there a parallel to these enor- 
 mities ? Do the Pagan nations persecute, destroy and 
 war with each other on account of their religion ? 
 Do men of science, philosophers, and so called Infi- 
 dels war upon each other on account of their difler- 
 ences of opinion ? But if they do not, why not ? 
 Simply, because tliey do not believe that the interest 
 of religion can be promoted by striking down the 
 liberty of thought and speech, and the right of every 
 human being to believe whatever approves itself to his 
 judgment. They are the friends of free toleration, 
 Freethought, free investigation, free discussion and 
 the liberty of the human mind. 
 
 The believers in Bible supernaturalism claim — as
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 53 
 
 all supernaturalists claim — that they have a God- 
 ordained priesthood, whose function it is, by precept 
 and example, to lead men to the practice of every 
 virtue. But what has been the history of priests in 
 all countries and in all ages ? Are they exempt from 
 the vices against which they declaim ? Are they any 
 less selfish, mercenary lovers of the good things of 
 this world and of the indulgence of their passions 
 than the average of other men ? I shrink from the 
 task of detailing the horrors of their record. I hesitate 
 not to say that no class of educated professional men 
 but what can show a cleaner record. The labors, in- 
 vestigations, discoveries and disclosures of lawyers, 
 physicians and scientists have been of incalculable 
 benefit to the world. But the priests, what have they 
 done ? They have filled the world with piles on piles 
 of books, pamphlets and tracts, filled with the silliest 
 nonsense and trash. Priestcraft and kingcraft are 
 twin brothers, they act in harmony and concert togeth- 
 er ; they have filled the world with carnage and blood 
 ever since the organization of human society ; they have 
 robbed men by confisication of more property than all 
 other robbers ; filched more money out of mens' 
 pockets by frauds in dealing in the relics and rotten 
 bones of saints and martyrs than all other thieves ; 
 caused more human suffering and tears, made more 
 widows and orphans than all other human causes 
 combined ; they have inflicted more tortures than all 
 other savages, and destroyed more lives than all other 
 murderers. The Jewish priesthood began with Aaron, 
 who manufactured an idol in the shape of a golden 
 calf for the people to worship, and then told a delib- 
 erate falsehood in order to hide his iniquity. It ended 
 in the crucifixion of Clirist. The example Oi Aaron
 
 54 THE PRO AlsD CON OF 
 
 ha8 been imitated by multitudes of his successors; the 
 priests were denounced and their time-serving policy- 
 exposed by the prophets, and in their official capacity 
 they -were scorned and condemned by the teacher, 
 Ciirist. Everywhere they have proved themselves to 
 be tyrants over the human mind, intolerant, opposed 
 to human progress, unless in the direction marked 
 out by them, and dealing out damnation to every one 
 who dares to dissent from their opinions, or question 
 their authority. In fine, they have in some instances 
 ' ' exalted themselves above all that can be called God 
 or is worshiped," and in other cases assumed to be the 
 vicegerents of God on earth, the only medium through 
 which God's blessings could flow to mankind. 
 
 It is in no carping spirit that these statements are 
 made, nor with any desire to slander, abuse or wound 
 a single human being. These are not the sayings of 
 a mad man. Sincerely do I wish that I could say in 
 all honesty and truth, that the)' are false ; but they 
 are truths, every one, and being so, are necessary to 
 my argument. I now appeal to the reader, and ask 
 him to lay his hand upon his heart and answer 
 nie. Have we not a right to expect from a people 
 claiming a God-given revelation, constituting an in- 
 fallible guide, a God-ordained Church, and a God- 
 appointed ministry better things than these ? Do not 
 the facts, then, prove that the arrogant claims and 
 pretensions of these men ought to be discarded by 
 every rational man ? 
 
 I may be asked if I thus impeach all of the clergy ? 
 By no means ; God forbid that I should make so false 
 and foolish a charge. No, the question has two sides, 
 and I have been speaking on one side only and in 
 general terms, I am by no means insensible to the
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 65 
 
 fact that there are among the believers in supernatu- 
 ralism, both of the clergy and laity, some as good men 
 as ever existed ; some of them I number on my list of 
 choicest friends, around whom are entwined my 
 heart's best affections. To the credit and honor of 
 human nature I am glad and proud to say that the 
 priesthood and the Church have produced many as 
 uoble specimens of humanity as ever dignified and 
 adorned our race ; men as wise, as great, and good as 
 any other ; But what I claim is that they are not good 
 because they believe as they do, but they are made so 
 by reason of their natural character, dispositions and 
 superior cultivation and development. They are 
 good Christians. They would have been good Mus- 
 sclmen, or Hindoos, or Deists, or Free Religionists. 
 We have good men outside of the Church as well as 
 in it ; good men of all forms of religion ; good men of 
 all sects and of no sect. Men we have, good as any, 
 who have no faith whatever in any form of supernat- 
 uralism. They are good, not because they are unbe- 
 lievers, but for the reason mentioned before. 
 
 Nor am I blind to the beauties of the Bible ; but if 
 it contains beauties, it also contains deformities. If it 
 fills the minds of some with the most comforting 
 hopes, it fills the minds of others with the most tor- 
 menting and distressing fears. If to some it imparts 
 joy and peace, to others it imparts sorrow and gloom; 
 if it makes some happy, it makes others miserable. 
 The eloquent Saurin, a French divine, admitted 
 that it had the effect on him to make "food insip- 
 id, society irksome, and life itself a cruel bitter." 
 The influence of the book, then, in the one direction 
 neutralizes its influence in the other. We can con- 
 serve all its good influence and prevent the bad by
 
 56 THE PRO AND COK OF 
 
 abandoning bur belief in its authority and infallibility. 
 
 If we reject the Bible in this sense, do we reject 
 the idea of the existence of any such thing as revela- 
 tion and inspiration ? Far from it. But we claim, 
 that "it is not necessary for God to speak in an audi- 
 ble voice in order to reveal himself and make his will 
 known." And we affirm that ever since men took it 
 into their heads to make him speak, each one makes 
 him speak in his own way and say what he thinks he 
 ought to say. Our book of Revelation includes the 
 Bible and all other books. It is the volume of na- 
 ture. God reveals himself in the laws and phenomena 
 of nature, and in the powers and faculties of the 
 human soul. He speaks to us in the sun and moon ; 
 in every star that shines in the blue vault above ; in 
 the globe which we inhabit; in the great ocean of 
 waters; in every lake and pond; in every river, rivulet 
 and spring; in the mountains, hills and plains; in every 
 spire of grass; in every plant and shrub and tree that 
 grows; in every flower that blooms; in eyery shower 
 of rain ; in storms and tempests ; in volcanoes and 
 earthquakes ; in the lightning and tlmnder ; in every 
 movement of the mind ; in every feeling and emotion 
 of the heart ; in every sensation we experience ; in 
 every object that meets the eye, and in every sound 
 that greets the ear. 
 
 As to inspiration, we believe as the Bible teaches, 
 that "there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of 
 the Almighty iriveth him understanding." We cannot 
 believe that lor a period of four thousand years, God 
 confined his gifts of revelation and inspiration to a 
 comparatively small nation of people inhabiting an 
 insignificant portion of the earth, to the entire neglect 
 of all the rest of mankind. We regard such an
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 57 
 
 as too monstrous a reflection on his character — an 
 impeachment of his partiality and goodness. God's 
 sunshine and rain descends upon all ; why should not 
 his blessings of revelation and inspiration ? Yes, we 
 believe in inspiration, but it is universal. All are in- 
 spired, but not all in the same degree ; some more, 
 some less, each one according to his deserving and 
 capacity ; none to a degree that makes them infallible. 
 Those who are the most inspired are the natural 
 teachers of those below them. God has given them 
 their credentials, noble intellects, hearts that beat 
 high in humanity's cause, and an irrepressible spirit 
 which makes each one feel, woe is me if I proclaim 
 not God's truth. "The world is their parish, and 
 mankind universally are their parishioners." They 
 feel that they have a mission on earth, and until that 
 is accomplished no harm can befall them. God's in- 
 spiration and revelation cannot be confined within 
 the lids of any book, nor the limits of any one man's 
 mind, nor to a single nation only ; not to only one 
 quarter of the globe. The true light, as saith the 
 scriptures, *'enlighteneth every man that cometh into 
 the world." That the Jewish prophets were inspired 
 we do not doubt ; so were Confucius, Buddha and 
 Mahomet, so was Christ and his Apostles, and Christ 
 more than all who had gone before him. Paul was 
 inspired more than all the rest of the aposfles put 
 together. He dared to put the spirit above the letter 
 of inspiration, and to teach that in all cases where 
 there was a conflict between them the letter must 
 yield. No doubt the Bible contains revelations from 
 God ; but the book itself is the work of human hands 
 and bears distinct marks of its human origin. No 
 doubt God spake to Moses -, but in the same way that
 
 58 THE PRO AKD CON OF 
 
 he has always been speakmg to the human race. In 
 the infancy of the race his voice is only faintly heard 
 because the peoples' hearing is indistinct ; but as the 
 race progresses and intellect and moral sense is more 
 developed, his voice is more distinctly heard and 
 better comprehended. Inspiration, then, is progres- 
 sive ; the final word has not yet been spoken. Reve- 
 lation is more full and complete to-day than ever 
 before ; but we may expect even greater revelations 
 in the future. The difference between us and other 
 religionists is not that we believe less, but a great deal 
 more. 
 
 Our God is the power that controls the universe of 
 matter; mind and morals ; the all-powerful, wise and 
 good. Our Church is the whole world ; the members 
 of it the entire race of man. If some are bad members 
 it is the duty of the rest to make them better. Our 
 Temple is all space. Our altar is '* earth, sea and 
 skies." Our sacrifices and hymns of praise are joyful 
 and thankful hearts. Our prayers are good desires 
 and wishes, accompanied by corresponding acts and 
 deeds. Vfe endeavor to manifest our regard and 
 reverence for the Supreme Being, by discharging with 
 fidelity the duties of life and doing good to our fellow- 
 men. Upon our altars no victims die ; no blood is 
 shed ; no offering is presented of burning flesh or 
 sweet scented herbs. "We never presume to off'er aid 
 to almighty power ; to counsel infinite wisdom ; to 
 communicate intelligence to omnicience, nor to desire 
 to avert the judgments of immaculate purity and jus- 
 tice; nor to try to make infinite love more kind to hi?- 
 creatures." We tolerate all opinions, and persecutf 
 for none. TVe seek to combat ignorance and super- 
 stition, not by force and violence, but by imparting
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 59 
 
 knowledge and instruction. We endeavor to lead the 
 erring from vice and to the practice of virtue, not by 
 threats and denunciations, but by mild reproof and 
 gentle pursuasion. We worship God, not so much 
 by set forms and ceremonies and prescribed rules, as 
 by doing good to each other. We use no signs, sym- 
 bols, amulets or charms. We fear no devils worse than 
 men carry in their own bosoms. We make no pil- 
 grimages to Mecca, to the Ganges, nor to Jerusalem. 
 We are not solitaries, recluses, monks, nuns, anchor- 
 ites, misanthropes nor pillar saints. We do not be- 
 lieve that the owl is a better bird for his gravity, nor 
 the lark a worse one for his merry notes ; nor that a 
 man's religion can be measured by the length of his 
 face. We believe in cultivating cheerfulness, mirth 
 and laughter ; in manifesting a spirit of kindness to 
 all men without exception, the bad as well as good, 
 and to everything that lives and breathes. We be- 
 lieve in making men good by making them happy. 
 We believe that the most acceptable return we can 
 make for all our blessings is to be thankful for them 
 and enjoy them, and that in so doing we only obey 
 God. We do not fast nor torture our bodies for the 
 good of our souls. We do not spend our days in 
 gloom and sorrow, and fancy that by so doing we are 
 serving either God or man. We fear no truth, and 
 accept without hesitation from whatever source, 
 whatever appears to be true, and as unhesitatingly re- 
 ject what we deem to be false. We endeavor to cul- 
 tivate a sufficient amount of manhood, moral courage 
 and heroism, to fearlessly avow our honest opinions. 
 
 If we reject the idea of the supernatural origin of 
 the Bible and of its absolute authority and infallibili- 
 ty, do we reject the beautiful moral and religious pre-
 
 W THE FRO AND CON OF 
 
 cepts, the sublime and elevating sentiments contamed 
 in the Old and New Testaments ? Sarely not ; or in 
 accepting these, must we endorse the gross, vulgar 
 ideas, the incredible statements, the unreasonable, 
 absurd doctrines therein contained ? If we read in a 
 book that two and two are four, and in the same book 
 that two and two are ten, if we believe the last, 
 must we, in order to be consistent deny also the first ? 
 But this is precisely what is meant when we are told 
 that if we reject one part of the Bible we must disbe- 
 lieve the whole. Again, if we reject the supernatural- 
 ism of Christianity, do we therefore renounce all re- 
 ligion ? As well might we renounce our nature, or 
 our manhood. The Bible did not make religion, nor 
 is it dependent on it. Religion existed before there 
 was any Bible. It had its birth in the heart of the 
 first man that ever lived. Moses, Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, Socrates, Plato and Seneca were religious 
 men ; but they never saw the Bible. The same causes 
 that made them religious can make us also. Religion 
 has its foundation in the nature and constitution of 
 men. Human religion has no existence outside of 
 human nature. It cannot be infused into man nor 
 engrafted on him ; it has its seat, its root, its germ in 
 the heart. All true religion must be of the heart and 
 be developed within. If all the Bibles in the world 
 of every name were exterminated, religion, however 
 much it might suffer from the loss of what is good and 
 true contained in them, would still survive the shock 
 and re-appear in all its inherent power and splendor. 
 
 Tell me not, then, that Rationalists are Infidels to 
 religion, when I know that their belief is that religion 
 stands in no . need of falsehoods, deception, pious 
 frauds, supernatural agencies nor miracles to support
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 61 
 
 it, and that in no way can it be destroyed except by 
 exterminating the human race. Religion is goodness^ 
 and just as much goodness as there is in tlie world, in 
 so much is the world blessed by religion. In pro- 
 portion as goodness is developed in the individual 
 man and carried out by him in practice, in that pro- 
 portion he is religious. Religion existed before writ- 
 ing was linown or books made, or ever ceremonials 
 instituted, creeds drawn up, or a priesthood establish- 
 ed. It will remain even if all these should be swept 
 away. 
 
 But *'how about theological doctrines ?" it may be 
 asked. Ah! we have now introduced the great bone 
 of contention which for ages has agitated the relig- 
 ious world, producing confusion, strife and conten- 
 tion, and almost, if not quite, neutralizing the benefi- 
 cial influence of religion among men. In regard to 
 theological dogmas, each man must be his own judge. ' 
 In so far as men form their own opinions, each man's 
 opinion will be a bantling of his own — a child of his 
 own creation. He will manifest toward it parental 
 affection, he will defend it when attacked, and assert, 
 as many do about their children, that it is the bigest, 
 handsomest, brightest and best that the human mind 
 ever gave birth to. It has been well said that *' it is 
 with our opinions as with our watches, those of oth- 
 ers go too fast or too slow, ours only, keeps the true 
 hour of the day." It is only men of refinement and 
 culture that can rise superior to this narrow and sel- 
 fish prejudice. Men's judgments differ, and, there- 
 fore, there will be differences, of opinions among 
 them. We have nothing to do with the opinions of 
 others except to tolerate them, and correct them if we 
 can, if we deem them to be erroneous, by argument
 
 62 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 and persuasion. Until we practice on this principle, 
 there can be no peace. The good man practices re- 
 ligion irrespective of creed, sect or party, and hence 
 it is, that we have good men of eveiy faith. If any 
 creed beneath the heavens could be supposed to have 
 power to drive out the last vestige of goodness from 
 the human heart, it is that of St. Augustine and John 
 Calvin. It asserts, in the most plain and unqualitied 
 terms, the utter vileness of human nature, and that 
 the manner of life and ultimate destiny of each indi- 
 vidual of the human race is fixed and determined by 
 the absolute, unalterable, unchangeable and irrevers- 
 able decree of the Almighty, without regard to the 
 goodness or badness of the persons. And yet, among the 
 believers in this creed have been found many as good 
 men as ever lived on earth. Men, then, are sometimes 
 good in spite of their creeds. But however at vari- 
 ance men may be in respect to their creeds, goodness 
 is recognized everywhere. God has set his seal upon 
 it, and it passes current all over the world, in all 
 ranks, classes and conditions of men, without one 
 solitary exception. Even the vilest of the vile respect, 
 honor and applaud the good man. 
 
 But I am often asked, ''how without supernatural 
 revelation are we to know anything about God and 
 immortality ?" Long before the Bible existed men 
 believed in God. No man can believe in God unless 
 he feels God within. This, in a different form of 
 words, was one of the maxims of the great teacher 
 Christ, and is a profound truth. The pure in heart 
 see God. None others can see him. Bad men may 
 believe in a God, but it is not the true God. Like the 
 devils spoken of in the Bible, they ''believe and 
 tremble." T^eir God is only a reflex image of them- 
 
 I
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 63 
 
 selves. The man who believes in God may not be 
 able to define him even to his own satisfaction. He 
 may not be able to comprehend his mode of existence, 
 or to conceive him as having form, shape, size or lo- 
 cality. But whoever believes in the existence of om- 
 nipotent power, directed by infinite wisdom and good- 
 ness, and that this power has established the govern- 
 ment of the Universe on the basis of exact and equal 
 justice to all his dependent creatures, thereby securing 
 absolute recompense to all exactly according to their 
 deserts ; and, furthermore, that although he shows no 
 special favor to any, he takes infinite pains to secure 
 the interest of the race, and that whatever benefits he 
 confers on the race will be ultimately participated in 
 by every individual of the race ; whoever, I say, be- 
 lieves this, believes in God. 
 
 The doctrine of immorality was not first announc- 
 ed in the Bible, nor is it proved by it. Some of the 
 Scripture writers express strong doubts on the sub- 
 ject. Only one attempted to prove it, viz : Paul, and 
 he rests it on a very precarious foundation — the alleg- 
 ed fact vouched for by himself, on hearsay testimony, 
 of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 
 This alleged fact is quite as difficult to prove as the 
 doctrine which is made to depend on it. The only 
 other argument for it in the Bible is that attributed to 
 Christ in his reported conversation with the Sadduc- 
 ers. When we examine it, we find it to be a mere 
 play upon words, a verbal quibble, which attributes 
 to the Old Testament writers thoughts which they did 
 not intend to express, a proceeding quite unworthy 
 of Christ, if, indeed, he was guilty of it, which is 
 more than can be known. 
 
 The doctrines of God and immortally are true if
 
 64 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 true at all irrespectiye of the Bible. They are true 
 not because they are taught there, but they are taught 
 there because they are- true. These doctrines are to 
 be believed, if believed at all, not because they can be 
 proved by logical argument, but because they meet 
 with a response from the inmost depths of the human 
 soul. No man of independent thought can believe in 
 immortality who does not feel himself to be immor- 
 tal. And he will feel himself to be so in proportion 
 as he becomes " pure in heart." At all events, he will 
 be resigned to his lot, and accept as the best good 
 whatever destiny the God of purity, justice and good- 
 ness may please to assign him. 
 
 The truh^ good man, who is enlightened, as well as 
 good, will practice goodness because he loves it, and 
 tor its own sake. He is not moved to action by con- 
 siderations of reward in another state of being, nor 
 deterred from vice by fear of punishment. He claims 
 no merit, however meritorious ; no reward, however 
 deserving. He has faith in God, in human nature, in 
 truth and goodness, and truth and goodness are to 
 him all in all. He does not fear to have his princi- 
 ples examined, investigated and scrutinized. He 
 does not deprecate fair manly discussion and contro- 
 versy, for he knows that God is on the side of truth, 
 and that the more it is examined the brighter it will 
 appear. He puts his trust in God, and has no fear of 
 what devils or men can do unto him. Goodness is 
 his comfort in life ; his consolation and support in 
 that great event in the history of us all which we call 
 death. Great is goodness. May it ultimately per- 
 vade the heart and mind of every human being. "Let 
 every thing that hath breath praise the Lord," and 
 may all the people say, Amen.
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 65 
 
 '* 'Twas thus the Royal mandate ran. 
 When first the human race began ; 
 The social, friendly, honest man. 
 
 'Tishe; 
 Fulfils great nature's law. 
 
 And none but he."
 
 66 THE PBO AlO) CON OF 
 
 PART V. 
 
 Review of the evidence in fawr of Miracles, and of the 
 authenticity of the Xew Testament 
 
 The substance of the best things that can be said in 
 favor of miracles, and of the authenticity of the New 
 Testament may be summed up in the following prop- 
 ositions: 
 
 1. There is an antecedent probability in favor of 
 miracles as a means of authenticating revelation. 2. 
 The doctrines of the Bible are of such a nature as to 
 prove the book divine. 3. It is impossible to ac- 
 count for the existence of so many marvelous stories 
 in the Xew Testament, only by supposing either that 
 they are true, or that the Evangelists were guilty of 
 wilfully falsifying in order to deceive. 4. Variations 
 in the accounts of the Bible writers is no proof that 
 what they record is false, inasmuch as "substantial 
 agreement with circuihstantial variety is character- 
 istic of all human testimony." 
 
 1. The antecedent prohability. Miracles, it is said, 
 are necessary in order to authenticate revelation. 
 This we deny, and therefore deny the probal)ility of 
 them. If God wished his creatures to be religious, 
 the probability is, he would make them naturally so, 
 and not so arrange the order of nature as to make it 
 necessary to break in upon and disturb the natural
 
 SUrEllXATUKAL liELIUION. 67 
 
 order^n revealing himself and making his will known. 
 Accordingly, we liud that man is endowed by nature 
 with religious powers and faculties — that the germ of 
 religion is planted in his heart and mind. That in 
 the infancy of the human race and while in a barba- 
 rous condition, the religious sentiments should be 
 comparatively latent or but feebly manifested, and 
 often misdirected is no more strange than that the 
 reasoning powers of man should be in the same con- 
 dition, or that we should be born into existence with 
 all our powers both of bod}' and mind in a latent 
 condition. 
 
 It is generally admitted that miracles are intrinsic- 
 ally improbable and incredible. If, then, it was 
 necessary for God to make a special revelation to man 
 and to authenticate it hy miracles, the amount of 
 proof of the miracles ought to correspond to their in- 
 credibility. If we ask for proof of the miracles, we 
 are t(;ld that the Bible is authority for them. But 
 how can an incredible thing be authenticated by an 
 authority which itself needs authentication? 
 
 2. 27ie doctrines of the Bible. If they were all new 
 and true that would not prove that they were specially 
 revealed; nor that they were above the conception of 
 the human mind. Besides, there is no religious doc- 
 trine or moral precept, no rite, ceremony or institu- 
 ti(m taught in the Old Testament, that had not its 
 counterpart in the opinions and religions of the Pagan 
 nations existing when the Hebrew Bible was written. 
 And all the real doctrines and precepts taught by 
 Christ, as well as all that have been incorporated with 
 them, have their counterpart in the teachings of men 
 who preceded liim by several centuries. 
 
 3. Were Christ and his disciples impostors? In re-
 
 68 THE PRO AND COK OF 
 
 gard to Christ, it is sufficient to say, that as he left no 
 record of his life or teachings, and did not authorize 
 any one to make such a record for him ; and as there 
 is abundant evidence in the record which we have 
 that it attributes to him sayings that he did not say, 
 and doings which he never did, it is impossible to tell 
 what he did or did not say and do. As for the Evan- 
 gelists, it has never been proved that they were the 
 authors of the books usually ascribed to them. The 
 weight of evidence, and even of authority of learned 
 divines, is that they were not. But suppose they 
 were. Then we shall be asked "if the miracles re- 
 corded in the four gospels were not wrought, how 
 came the writers to lelkve that they were ?" It will be 
 said, "these men had common sense; they were capa- 
 ble of judging; they make no attempt at exaggeration, 
 and they record the miracles in a simple, artless 
 manner, as any historian would record events of com- 
 mon occurrence." Here we must proceed with 
 caution. This is a vital point. This argument is not 
 to be treated with a sneer, nor passed by as of no 
 consequence. Before we proceed to comment on it 
 we must warn the reader that it will not do to transfer 
 our knowledge, opinions, views and feelings to the 
 men of those ancient times. To do so, is a fallacy so 
 glaring that we marvel that it should be so generally 
 overlooked. Undoubtedly if some one in our day 
 should claim the power to work miracles, such as 
 raising the dead, »i'c., we should be exceedingly in- 
 credulous, and would not believe only after the 
 closest scrutiny and the presentation of an over- 
 whelming amount of evidence. But with the Evan- 
 gel bts, the case was quite diflerent. They lived iu 
 an age and among a people who knew but little about
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 69 
 
 nature and her laws; a people who were exceedingly 
 credulous and superstitious, and believed tliat mira- 
 cles w^ere wrought almost ever}'^ day in their public 
 streets. All the common and ordinary phenomena 
 of nature tliey attributed to the direct agency of God 
 or the Devil. 
 
 The Evangelists were Jews. They believed 
 that in all past time God had wrought miracles in 
 behalf of his chosen people, and that the time had 
 arrived when there was to be the grandest display of 
 almighty power for the redemption of the Jews from 
 their bondage and degradation. Nothing was more 
 natural then, than that they should expect from a man 
 who claimed to be a religious reformer and deliverer, 
 that he should work miracles. Hence, when they saw 
 things done which they deemed miraculous it excited 
 in them no surprise. The only thing that surprised 
 them was that the miracles were so different in kind 
 from what they were expecting. Christ was a re- 
 markable man, commanding in his appearance, voice 
 and manner. He possessed a great share of that per- 
 sonal, mysterious magnetism, which has been so 
 often displayed by other men. He taught doctrines 
 which were adapted to the wants of the common peo- 
 ple. His miracles, such as healing the sick, restoring 
 sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, were such 
 as are wrought at the present day; but which no one 
 supposes to be miraculous. The power to cast out 
 evil spirits was possessed by some men among the 
 Jews, in common with Christ. All these things were 
 thought to be miracles by the disciples, and believing 
 them such, opened the way to their believing almost 
 anything. 
 
 According to Lardner, the gospels were writ-
 
 70 THE PRO A2JD CON OP 
 
 ten, the earliest not less than thirty-one, the latest 
 thirty-five years after the death of Christ. Two of the 
 supposed writers, Mark, and Luke, were not eye- 
 witnesses of what they record. All four wrote with 
 a view to give an outline history of the life and teach- 
 ings of Christ. Nothing could be more natural than 
 that they should record, not •; nly what they knew, 
 but also all that was currently believed by their fel- 
 low Christians of that day. The artless manner in 
 which they recorded what to us would be incredible, 
 is thus easily accounted for. And we are under no' 
 necessity of supposing that the writers were any other 
 than honest men, aside from the tendency of religious 
 enthusiasm and love of the marvelous to exaggera- 
 tion. A critical examination of the gospels will ena- 
 ble us to detect such a tendency even in them. For 
 proof, see Matt. iii. 5, 6: iv. 23-25. 
 
 Before the gospels were wi-itten, Christian congre- 
 gations had been gathered in Syria, Egypt, Greece, 
 Rome and other places. Soon after they were written 
 Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed. 
 The principal interest in these writings was confined 
 to those who were interested in having them received 
 as authentic. But few copies of them were in exist- 
 ence; only a few among the people could read them, 
 and they were mainly in the hands of the clergy. 
 There was no one to question their genuineness until 
 sometime after they first appeared: and when they 
 began to be criticised, the writings of those who did 
 question them were not long after destroyed. 
 
 If God chose miracles as a means of authenticating 
 a revelation, it is certainly very singular that the 
 means should prove so inadequate to the end. At the 
 very time when miracles were wrought in the greatest
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 71 
 
 abundance, a great majority of those who are said to 
 have witnessed them were not convinced by them. 
 If the Jews had believed them to be genuine, would 
 they have dared to proceed against Christ as they 
 did? The miraculous portion of the gospels has al- 
 ways been a serious obstacle in the way of their re- 
 ception by scientific men, and to-day hinders the pro- 
 gress of religion in the world. 
 
 Let us now take another view. "We will suppose 
 what the weight of evidence and authority justifies us 
 in believing to be true; that these gospels were not 
 written by the Evangelists, but were compiled by 
 after writers at a time somewhat later than the date 
 usually assigned them, and when nothing was more 
 common than to forge books and attribute their 
 authorship to distinguished persons in order to give 
 them authority. Is it not possible, then, that some 
 liberties may have been taken by the compilers? 
 Whether they were written by the Evangelists or not, 
 it is certain that they have been frequently copied; 
 that they were finally separated from a mass of simi- 
 lar books, and pronounced to be authentic and 
 a,uthoritative by uninspired and fallible men. Can an 
 incredible thing be proved by such evidence ? The 
 evidence is wholly exparte. No scientific test was 
 applied to any of the miracles. No committee of 
 scientific men examined to ascertain whether Lazarus 
 was dead or not, and we have no opportunity to cross- 
 question the witnesses. 
 
 As to the internal evidence of the infallibility of 
 these books, we know that they contain incredible 
 statements; direct contradictions, and glaring incon- 
 sistencies. As a specimen of the latter, we are told 
 that at the baptism of Christ, John recognized him as
 
 72 THE PRO AND CON 0» 
 
 the Messiah, and boldly announced him as such to 
 the people. Not only so, but the fact was confirmed 
 by a miracle, the visible appearance of a dove and an 
 audible voice from heaven. Tet subsequently to this 
 impressive scene, John is represented as having been 
 in doubt on the subject. Is it possible that if John 
 was inspired, and had witnessed this miracle, he could 
 have such doubts ? 
 
 The fact that the New Testament contains contra- 
 dictions is sometimes denied. Let us examine and 
 see. Take the account of the resurrection of Christ. 
 All the accounts agree that after the crucifixion his 
 body was placed in the tomb of a man who was one 
 of his friends. l^Iark says, that when he was taken 
 down from the cross, Pilate " marveled " that he was 
 so soon dead. They all agree that the tomb was vis- 
 ited on Sunday morning, and that the body was not 
 there. But they differ, 
 
 1. As to the time of day. Matthew says, it was "in 
 the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward 
 the first day of the week." Mark says it was " at the 
 rising of the sun." Luke, that it was "very early in 
 the morning." John, that it was " when it was yet 
 dark." This difference is slight, and we only men- 
 tion it to show that the visit was probably before it 
 was light. How could Matthew know that an angel 
 from heaven had been there and removed the stone 
 from the door of the sepulchre? Neither he nor any 
 of the disciples were there to see. Was not this a 
 mere inference, from the fact that this stone was roll- 
 ed away? He certainly testifies to something of 
 which he was not an eye-witness. Nor could he have 
 witnessed it, for it was done, if done at all, in the 
 dark.
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 73 
 
 2. Number of 'persons who msited the tomb. John 
 mentions but one; Matthew, two; Mark, three; Luke, 
 three, and ''certain other women who were with 
 them." Now these gospels are supposed to have been 
 written by independent witnesses. Here they are re- 
 lating one of the most important events in the career 
 of Christ, one on the truth or falsity of which the 
 whole superstructure of supernatural religion depend- 
 ed. They ara supposed to have been inspired in or- 
 der to assist them to tell the truth. They should, 
 then, have told "the truth, the whole truth, and 
 nothing but ihe truth." But if there was more than 
 one person that went to the sepulchre, then, John did 
 not tell the whole truth. If there was more than two, 
 Matthew failed to do it ; and if more than three, 
 Mark did not tell it all. It was an important point, 
 for much would depend on the number of witnesses 
 of the resurrection. 
 
 3. Number of persons wlio appeared to the visitors. 
 Mark says one "young man;" Matthew, one "an- 
 gel;" Luke, "two men;" John, "two angels." If 
 there was but one person, there were not two ; if there 
 were two, there were more than one. If the persons 
 were men, they were not angels ; if they were angels^ 
 they were not men. 
 
 4 Time of the appearance of these men or angels. Ac- 
 cording to John, not till Mary's second visit to the 
 tomb, after Peter and John had been there. Accord- 
 ing to Matthew, Mark and Luke,- it was when Mary 
 first went to the place. 
 
 5. Message of tlie persons seen at t,he tomb. John said 
 the two " angels " said to Mary Magdalene, "Woman! 
 why wcepest thou ?" Luke says that tux? men an- 
 nounced to several women that Christ had risen.
 
 74 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 Mark tells us that this announcement was made to 
 three women by a "young man." Matthew says it 
 was made to two women by the " angel " who liad 
 rolled away the stone. 
 
 6. Conduct of the parties tonohomthe announcement 
 was made. Mark says, "they said nothing to any 
 man." Matthew, Luke and John say that they hast- 
 ened to carry the news to the disciples. 
 
 7. The persons io whom Jesus apipewred. Matthew 
 says, it was first to two women, then to the disciples. 
 Mark, that it was to one woman, then to two of the 
 disciples, and then to the eleven. Luke, that it was 
 first to Cleopas and his companion, as they journeyed 
 to Emmaus ; then to Peter, then to the eleven. John 
 j<ays it was to one woman, then twice to the eleven. 
 
 8. Places tchere Christ was seen. Mark does not men- 
 tion any particular place. Matthew says he was seen 
 by two women on their way to tell the disciples what 
 they had seen at the sepulchre ; then on a mountain in 
 Galilee. John says it was first to Mary Magdalene at 
 the sepulchre, then at Jerusalem, though he does not 
 name the place ; and then to the disciples at the Sea 
 of Tiberias. According to Luke, it was first on the 
 way to, and at Emmaus, then at Jerusalem and Beth- 
 any. 
 
 9. According to Matthew, Christ directed the dis- 
 ciples to go to Galilee, and promised to meet them 
 there. Mark says, this direction was given by a 
 " young man,** who was seen in the tomb. Luke and 
 John are silent about this direction and meeting. Ac- 
 cording to Luke, the meetings of Christ with his dis- 
 ciples were all in Jerusalem and its vicinity, at one of 
 which he directed them to "tarry in Jerusalem until 
 they were endued with power from on high."
 
 8IJPERNATUEAL. RELIGION. 75 
 
 10. Matthew says, the disciples went to Galilee and 
 met Christ there. Luke, that they tarried in Jerusa- 
 lem, and "were continually in the temple praising 
 and blessing God." 
 
 11. Matthew and John say nothing about what be- 
 came of Christ after his resurrection. Mark says, he 
 ascended to heaven, but does not tell us when, where, 
 nor how. Luke says, he was " carried up into heav- 
 en" from Bethany, but does not say in what way. 
 Healsotf's us that his ascension took place on the 
 evening of the third day after his resurrection. (See 
 chap. xxiv. 21; compare verses 33, 36, 50.) But in 
 Acts he tells us that he did not ascend until forty days 
 after the resurrection, and that it took place from 
 Mount Olivet. 
 
 Another remarkable thing in these accounts is, that 
 the persons to whom Christ appeared could only with 
 diflEiculty recognize him. When Mary saw him she 
 did not know him, but supposed him to be the "gard- 
 ener." Two of his disciples journe3^ed with him, 
 conversed with him, spent some time in his company, 
 and yet did not know who he was, but regarded him 
 as a "stranger." When the eleven met in Galilee, 
 where they went by appointment, expecting to see 
 him, "some" of them ** doubted." At his first ap. 
 pearance to them they were "affrighted," and "sup- 
 posed they saw a spirit." From Mark xvi. 12, we 
 learn that he appeared in different forms. Matthew 
 tells of a phenomenon which occurred at the resurrec- 
 tion which is not mentioned by either Mark, Luke 
 or John, viz. : a "great earthquake" and the descent 
 of an " angel of the Lord from heaven." Of this we 
 will speak in the proper place. 
 
 Whether Christ ascended to heaven in his natural
 
 76 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 body, or whether his body passed through a change of 
 any kind, we are not informed. If his body waa 
 changed so as to become etherealized and fitted for a 
 residence in a spiritual sphere, and the Evangelists 
 knew it, it is strange that they did not record that 
 fact. The fact that they did not, is evidence that they 
 did not perceive the incongruity and impossibility 
 which was perceived by Paul, viz.: of "flesh and 
 blood inheriting the kingdom of God.'' 
 
 In order to account for the difficulty of the disci- 
 ples to recognize Christ, it may be said that his ex- 
 citement, anxiety and sufferings previous to and at 
 the crucifixion had so worn upon and emaciated him, 
 as to change his appearance. But the same power 
 that could impart life to his dead body, could also re- 
 store it to perfect physical health and integrity, and 
 doubtless would do it. It may be said that his resur- 
 rection was so unexpected and attended by such mar- 
 velous occurrences, that the disciples were alarmed 
 and bewildered. But veteran soldiers, who have been 
 often under fire, are not apt to be alarmed out of their 
 senses when they hear the familiar sound of the boom- 
 ing cannon. The disciples had been living in the 
 very atmosphere of the marvelous and supernatural 
 for three years. They had witnessed miracle after 
 miracle ; they had seen Lazarus raised from the dead, 
 and associated with him without fear after his resur- 
 rection. Surely, after witnessing what they had, no 
 display of divine power ought to alarm or astonish 
 them. If it was not in body but in spirit that he ap- 
 peared, as Prof. Bush taught, and as our modern 
 Spiritualists teach, it is sufficient to say that this is ex- 
 pressly contradicted by Christ himself. (See Luke 
 xxiv. 39, and John xx. 27.) Besides, if his resurrec
 
 *6UPEENATUEAL RELIGION. 77 
 
 tion and appearance was of the spirit only, tlien it 
 comes under the bead of those appearances of the 
 spirits of deceased persons to the living, about which 
 we hear so much at the present day, and passes out 
 of the domain of the miraculous. 
 
 Here, now, we have the testimony of four witnesses 
 in relation to the great crowning eyent, the grand cen- 
 tral fact of supernatural Christianity — an occurrence 
 which, if it actually took place, was tbe most import- 
 ant of any in the world's history, involving the inter- 
 est of every human being. And what is the testi- 
 mony? It is vague, obscure, conflicting, inconsistent 
 with itself, and self -contradictory. But worse still, 
 even if it were not so, it utterly fails to establish the 
 vital point in the story, viz. : the resurrection of Christ 
 from the dead. If he rose, he must have risen in the 
 dark, and not one of the witnesses was present when 
 the occurrence took place. We can easily believe that 
 he was placed in Joseph's tomb, but we have no proof 
 that lite was extinct when he was put there. It may 
 be said that the wound in his side must have produc- 
 ed death. This is a gratuitous assumption. It might 
 have been the means of his resuscitation from a 
 swoon. Besides, the circumstance of the wound in 
 the side, made by a Roman soldier, is narrated only 
 by John, and totally ignored by all three of the other 
 witnesses. We may believe that when the tomb was 
 visited on Sunday morning, the body was not there, 
 but this does not prove thai a miracle was wrought to 
 restore it to life. It is quite probable that some of 
 his followers saw, or thought they saw, him after his 
 body was laid in the tomb, but the fact that he was 
 seen by nobody else, is certainly not a little suspicious. 
 Is it likely that God would work a miracle to attest a
 
 78 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 revelation, and then leave the miracle to be attested 
 by such proof ? 
 
 It may be said, that although there is some varia- 
 tion in these accounts, yet, "circumstantial variation 
 with substantial agreement is characteristic of all hu- 
 man testimony." So it is. But testimony that is 
 wholly false may h.ave the same characteristic. Be- 
 sides, although the rule is good as relates to human 
 testimony, it is not applicable to divine testimony; 
 and we are here dealing with what is supposed to 
 be infallible testimony. Infallibility does not admit 
 of degrees. Divine testimony cannot be partly true 
 and partly false. It cannot be substantially true and 
 circumstantially untrue. 
 
 If we scrutinize the accounts of miracles contained 
 in the New Testament, we find most of the important 
 ones attended by the same or similar difficulties. 
 
 1. Miraculous birth of Chnst. Not only are the ac- 
 counts of it inconsistent with themselves, but self-con- 
 tradictory. Besides, if they were true, and generally 
 believed by those who were acquainted with him, he 
 must have started out on his mission with the pres- 
 tige of a miraculous origin in his favor. But tlirough- 
 out his career he is generally spoken of as the son of 
 Joseph, or the "carpenter's son." Although frequent- 
 ly reproached on account of his low birth and origin, 
 he does not reply by asserting his birth of a virgin. 
 No retrospective allusion to it is made either by him- 
 self or his disciples. No hint of it is given in the 
 epistles of either Paul, Peter, James, Jude, or John. 
 His townsmen were the most stubborn unbelievers in 
 him. Even his own brothers and sisters, who ought 
 to have known all about it, did not accept him as the 
 Messiah, and on one occasion were about to arrest
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 79 
 
 him on the ground that he was a *' lunatic" and was 
 '*mad." It is evident they had never heard of his 
 miraculous birth. 
 
 2. Flight into Egypt. Matthew relates that immediate- 
 ly after his birth, his parents fled with him into Egypt, 
 where they remained until the death of Herod. Mat- 
 thew is the only New Testament writer who says any- 
 thing about it, and he is contradicted by Luke, who 
 says that eight days after his birth he was circumcised, 
 and after the purification of his mother, he was present- 
 ed to the Lord in the temple at Jerusalem, from which 
 place they went to their own city, Nazareth, and 
 dwelt there. 
 
 3. Temptation. Mark says, that "immediately" 
 after his baptism, the "spirit" drove him into the 
 wilderness, where he was forty days tempted of 
 Satan. John wholly ignores the temptation, and 
 says that the third day after his baptism he attended a 
 wedding in Cana of Galilee. From Cana he went to 
 Capernium, where he remained some days and then 
 went to Jerusalem. 
 
 4. Turning loater into wine. If this miracle really 
 occurred, it is strange that John is the only Evangel- 
 ist who has recorded it, especially, as it is said to have 
 been the first, and certainly not the least wonderful. 
 Is it credible that God should work a miracle in order to 
 change one hundred and thirty-five gallons of water 
 into wine for the accomodation of men who had al- 
 ready drank all that had been provided for the occa- 
 sion, by their host ? All the circumstances go to 
 show that the account is a mere legend. 
 
 5. TJie transfiguration. This is related by Matthew, 
 Mark and Luke, neither of whom were present to wit- 
 ness it, but wholly omitted by John, who is said to
 
 80 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 have been an eye-witness. It is barely alluded to 
 once, or is supposed to be, by Peter, but not mention- 
 eu by James, both of whom, it is said, were present. 
 
 (i. Commission of the Apostles. We are told that 
 Christ, just before his ascension, imparted the '* Holy 
 Ghost" to the Apostles, and commissioned them to 
 "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
 creature." And yet we find that Peter had to be con- 
 vinced of the propriety of preaching to the Gentiles 
 by a special revelation ; and that he was called to ac- 
 count lor so doing by his fellow-disciples, who subse- 
 quently, however, became convinced that he was 
 right. 
 
 7. Conversion of Paid. . We have four different ac- 
 counts of this. One histarical by Luke, in Acts 9th ; 
 i\fO reported by Luke; one in Acts 32d, the other in 
 Acts 26th, as having been given by Paul; and the 
 fourth by Paul himself, in GaUtians, 1st chapter. In 
 the narrative of it by Luke — he does not say whether 
 the men who were with Paul saw the " great light" 
 witnessed by Paul or not. But he says they heard the 
 "voice." He also says, that although Paul was 
 stricken to the ground, the men "stood speechless." 
 In his report of Paul's speech to the Jews in Jerusa- 
 lem, he makes him contradict the first statement by 
 saying that the men " saw indeed the light but beard 
 not the voice.'* And in his speech to Agrippa, he 
 contradicts the other, by affirming that not only he, 
 but all the men who were with him were prostrated. 
 In Acts xxii. 10, it is said that the heavenly voice di- 
 rected Paul to Damascus, where he would be told 
 what was required of him. But in his speech to 
 Agrippa, he says this same "voice" gave him his com- 
 mission as an apostle at the very time when the
 
 SUPERNATUKAL RELIGION. 81 
 
 *' light was seen, and the voice heard. Again, in his 
 address to Agrippa, he says, that immediately after 
 receiving his commission he commenced preaching 
 "unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and 
 throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the 
 Gentiles." But in Galatians, 1st chap., he affirms that 
 he did not confer with any of the other apostles; did 
 not learn the gospel from them; did not go up to 
 Jerusalem; but "went to Arabia, and returned again 
 unto Damascus. Then after three years he went to 
 Jerusalem to see Peter. 
 
 Finally, these writers state some things, which, if 
 true, we should expect would be corroborated by 
 other testimony; but they are not. 
 
 1. The taxing of tlie Jews hy CcRsar Agustus. No 
 Roman, or any other historian has mentioned any- 
 such tax. Judea was not a Roman province when 
 Jesus was born; nor was Cyrenius Governor of Syria 
 until ten or twelve years after that event. 
 
 2. Tlie slaughter of the innocents hy Herod. The ac- 
 count of this is not confirmed by any historian; not 
 even by Josephus, who gives a full history of the life 
 and reign of Herod, and an enumeration of his crimes. 
 
 3. The darkness, the quaking of the earth; the rending 
 the rocks^ and vail of the temple^ at tlie crucifixion : and 
 the earthquake at the resurrection. Not only is most of 
 these phenomena unmentioned by all of the Evangelists 
 except Matihew )ut no allusion is made to these 
 occurrences anywhere else in the Nevv Testament ; 
 nor in the annals of any nation in the world. 
 
 In view of these facts, to what other conclusion 
 can we arrive, but that the theory of infallible in- 
 spiration has no foundation in truth? Nor is it prob- 
 able that the testimony we have been reviewing isihat
 
 82 THE PBO AND CON OF 
 
 of eye and ear witnesses. If it is, their memory must 
 have been very defective. That the New Testament 
 writers were mistaken about some things we know. 
 Paul and Barnabas did not agree, but contended 
 " sharply " with each other. Peter and Paul dillered 
 in opinion, and Paul rebuked Peter publicly, charg- 
 ing him with dissimulation : both could not be right. 
 Infallible men could not but agree. Doubtless, most 
 of the events recorded by the writers of the gospels 
 had some foundation in truth; but they were not re- 
 corded as they actually occurred, but as they were 
 believed to have occurred. It is one thing to see an 
 angel, it is quite another to believe that somebody else 
 has. It is one thing for a phenomenon to occur, it is a 
 very different thing to believe that it was produced 
 by a special interposition of divine power. A record 
 of the phenomena, a history of which we have in the 
 gospels, was not made at the time they occurred, but 
 long after, and at a time when the original facts had 
 become greatly exaggerated. Undoubtedly the New- 
 Testament contains much valuable truth; but it also 
 contains mistakes and errors. It is not therefore the 
 ultimate standard of truth, nor on\j nile of faith and 
 practice. It is ours to separate the Hruth from tlie 
 error; to sift the wheat from the chaff, and to con- 
 serve the one and burn up the chaff with unquencha- 
 ble fire. 
 
 Were the gospels as we now have them writ- 
 ten BY THE PERSONS WHOSE NAMES THEY BEAR ? 
 
 It is often asserted in more than a thousand pulpits 
 and reiterated and repeated again and again in the most 
 positive terms, that the proof of the genuineness of our 
 present four gospels is so conclusive and overwhelm- 
 ing, that whoever denies it must be either very igno-
 
 SUPERNATUKAL RELiaiON. 83 
 
 rnnt, imbecile or dishonest. In order to show upon 
 Avliat a weak foundation this sweeping assertion is 
 made to rest, it is only necessary to examine the 
 all edged evidence. 
 
 We are I old that the history of these gospels can be 
 traced up to the very time of the apostles and evan- 
 gelists, and that the authorship of them by the writers 
 to whom they are attributed is proved by the testimony 
 of the immediate successors of the apostles. Now 
 what are the facts ? The immediate successors of the 
 apostles are called '' apostolic fathers, "and those who 
 succeeded them are called "Christian fathers." The 
 testimony of the first named and those of the last 
 named who lived before the New Testament collec- 
 tion was made, is all that is of any value. The apos- 
 tolic fathers are Clemens, Ignatius, Polycarp, Papi- 
 us, Barnabas, and Hermas. The first Christian 
 fathers are Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenaeus, and The- 
 ophilus. The last father named, lived at about the 
 time when the gospels were collected and compiled 
 with the other books of the New Testament. The 
 New Testament, however, was not declared to be the 
 standard of truth by authority of the Chunih until 
 after this. Now what do these witnesses say on the 
 point in question ? 
 
 These fathers all lived in the first century of the 
 Christian era. If during that century there existed 
 four difterent biographers of the life and teachings of 
 Christ with which they were acquainted, and which 
 they accepted as authoritative, we should expect them 
 to make frequent use of them as authority for their 
 own teachings. But what are the facts ? In their 
 writings which have come down to us, we find 
 some express citations of some of the epistles of the
 
 ^4 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 New Testament and some allusions to the same and 
 also citations of apocryphal gospels, yet we do not 
 find either of the four gospels cited, alluded to or 
 referred to by name. "We find a few passages in 
 their writings attributed by them to Christ, corres- 
 ponding in part to passages in the gospels; bnt whether 
 these passages were mere traditional sayings which 
 had been handed down orally, or were contained in 
 writings older than our gospels, they do not inform 
 us. That the latter is the fact we will now show to 
 be probable. 
 
 The first mention of Matthew's gospel by name is 
 by Papias, the first Christian father. He was bishop 
 of Hierapolis, and lived in the fore part of the second 
 century. He says that Matthew wrote a gospel in 
 Hebrew, and in the time of Origen towards the mid- 
 dle of the third century it was the universal belief of 
 the Church that such was the fact. At an early peri- 
 od that gospel was lost, and what became of it no one 
 has told us. If our present gospel of Matthew is a 
 translation of it, when, where or by whom it was 
 translated no one knows. It is a very well authenti- 
 cated fact, that in very early times there did exist a 
 gospel called the gospel of the Nazarenes. Origen 
 nad a copy of it, and Jerome translated it ; but neither 
 the original nor the translation has eome down to us. 
 It is generally believed, however, that it was not the 
 lost gospel of Matthew, although it somewhat resem- 
 bled it. Papias then gives us no certain testimony in 
 regard to our present gospel of Matthew. 
 
 Respecting the gospel of Mark, the historical evi- 
 dence of its genuineness is more meager still. Papias 
 says that Mark went with Peter to Rome, and while 
 there acted as interpreter for Peter; he wrote down
 
 SUPERNATURAL IlELIGION. 85 
 
 what he could remember of what Peter told him, or 
 what he heard him say. Clement of Alexandria 
 says, that Mark, at the request of the Church at Rome, 
 wrote a gospel, and Peter, when informed of it, hesi- 
 tated about giving it his sanction; but finally did so 
 in obedience to a vision. Irenseus says, that it was 
 after the death of Peter that Mark wrote his gospel. 
 Chrysostom says, that after writing it he went to 
 Egypt. Epiphanius says he went to Egypt by the 
 direction of Peter. Here now the testimony is so 
 conflicting and inconsistent with itself as to be totally 
 valueless. 
 
 As for Luke's gospel, we find no mention of it by 
 any of the apostolic fathers, nor by any of the Chris- 
 tian fathers before the last of the second century. 
 The same is true of the gospel of John. The first 
 Christian writer who mentions the four gospels by 
 name and attributes their authorship to Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, and John, was Irenseus who lived near 
 the end of the second century. The history of these 
 gospels can be traced with certainty up to the year 
 368, at which time the Council of Laodicea included 
 them in a catalogue of the New Testament books 
 omitting the book of Revelations. From that time 
 they may be traced with tolerable certainty up to the 
 time of Irenseus. From that time upward their his- 
 tory is involved in obscurity if not in total darkness. 
 
 It appears then, that in the writings of the apostolic 
 and Christian fathers, there are passages which resem- 
 ble passages in our four gospels, but in only a few 
 instances are they verbatim resemblances. Second, 
 they also contain passages which are not found in the 
 gospels. Third, there are quotations in them from 
 what were afterwards deemed apocryphal gospels.
 
 86 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 Fourth, in none of tlie early writei-s are our gospels 
 cited or referred to by name. From all which it ap- 
 pears that the first fathers might have denied all the 
 passages contained in their writings which resembled 
 passages in our gospels from writings which existed 
 before our gospels were written, and there is no 
 proof that they ever saw the gospels as we now have 
 iliem. 
 
 But suppose we had the unequivocal testimony of 
 ihe apostolic and Christian fathers to the genuineness 
 of the gospels, what would be the value of their testi- 
 mony ? The weight of evidence must be estimated 
 by the intelligence and veracity of the witnesses. 
 AYhat then is the reputation of these fathers for intel- 
 ligence and veracity ? On this point we have the 
 testimony of the great ecclesiastical historian, Mo- 
 sheim, who wrote in the interest of Christianity, that 
 the " apostolic fathers and the other writers, who, in 
 the infancy of the Church, employed their pens in the 
 cause of Christianity, were neither remarkable for 
 their learning nor for their eloquence. On the con- 
 trar}', they express the most pious and admirable sen- 
 timents in the plainest and most illiterate style." The 
 writings of these men show, conclusively, that many 
 of them were weak men; that all of them were ex- 
 u-emely credulous; that they endorsed not only all the 
 'uarvelous stories in circulation in their day about 
 Christ and his apostles, but all the extravagant fic- 
 tions of the Greek and Roman mythology. They 
 sometimes employed known falsehood in support of 
 I heir cause; and forged books to prove their doctrines. 
 ]\Ios]ieim says, the Christian fathers adopted and acted 
 upon the maxim, that ''it is lawful to lie for the 
 Uuth." Whatever weight we attach to their testi-
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 87 
 
 mony it is equally good for the apocryphal writings 
 
 and for the Pagan mythology. 
 
 In the absence of any historical proof of the genu- 
 ineness of the gospels we are led to the inquiry, is 
 there any internal evidence which is sufficient to es- 
 tablish them as genuine ? Here the evidence is all 
 the other way, as the following considerations go to 
 show. First, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and 
 Luke, so far as they relate to the addresses, parables 
 and miracles of Christ, bear a remarkable resemblance 
 to each other. Not only do they relate the same 
 things, but in many instances they relate them in the 
 same or nearly the same words. Now this resem- 
 blance is in the Greek gospels, whereas, Christ spoke 
 in the language in use in Palestine, and his words, 
 therefore, had to be translated into Greek by his 
 biographers. Now it is incredible that three inde- 
 pendent writers should report the sayings of Christ, 
 and translate his words into a diflferent language from 
 that in which he spake, and that there should be this 
 verbal agreement in their report. Second, in the in- 
 troduction to Luke's gospel, he addresses himself to a 
 personage whom he calls "most excellent Theophil- 
 us." In those times this title belonged only to per- 
 sons of rank and distinction. It is remarkable that in 
 all the writings of the early Christians, we find no 
 other mention of such a personage until the time of 
 Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, who lived near the 
 close of the second century. He is said to have been 
 a principal actor in collecting and arranging the books 
 of the New Testament and putting them in their 
 present form. It is highly probable that the four 
 gospels were compiled from previously existing writ- 
 ings about that time, and if so, they could not have
 
 88 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 been written by the Evangelists in their present form. 
 Of John's gospel, it may be said it is quite unlike 
 either of the others. This unlikeness may be seen in 
 the following particulars. 1. In the fourth gospel 
 there is no record of the numerous parables found in 
 the other three, nor any intimation that Christ adopt- 
 ed that mode of instruction. 2. The discourses at- 
 tributed to Christ in the one, are entirely different 
 from those in the others. In John's gospel they are 
 lengthy, systematic, enigmatical, dogmatic, and 
 abound in self-assertion. In the others they are frag- 
 mentary, plain, practical, and exhibit a spirit of meek- 
 ness and humility. 3. The style of the discourses in 
 John is entirely different from those in Matthew, 
 Mark, and Luke. This difference is so great as to 
 justify us in saying that if Christ spoke as the first 
 three gospels represent him, he could not have spoken 
 as John represents him, and visa versa. 4. John 
 omits all mention of the miraculous cures of demoni- 
 acs, to which the other writers seem to have attached 
 so much importance. There are other differences 
 which might be pointed out, but those above are suf- 
 ficient for our present purpose. There is but one 
 clue to the authorship of John's gospel, and that is the 
 fact that a comparison of the gospel with the first of 
 the three epistles attributed to John in the New Tes- 
 tament, shows that the style and often the very ideas 
 and words attributed to John the Baptist and Christ 
 in the gospel, correspond exactly with the style, ideas 
 and words oi liiat epistle. From this fact we infer 
 that whoever was the author of the epistle was the 
 author of the gospel also. Now, although the second 
 and third epistles of John were considered doubtful 
 for a long time by the Church; the first was always
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 8'J 
 
 received as genuine. This points to John as the 
 author of the fourth gospel. But if John was the 
 author of it, was it originally written hi the form in 
 which we now have it ? We know that an unknown 
 writer added to it, (see John xxi. 24r-25,) and to what 
 extent he might have further tampered with it no one 
 knows. 
 
 But suppose that each of the gospels could be proved 
 to have been written by their reputed authors, could 
 we implicitly rely on their testimony ? A few con- 
 siderations will lead us to see that we could not. 1. 
 The reputed authors were ignorant and superstitious, 
 predisposed to believe in the marvelous, and regarded 
 all the phenomena of nature as produced by a special 
 divine providence. 2. They were not eye and ear 
 witnesses of all that they record. They relate occur- 
 rences which took place when they could not have 
 been present. For example, the remarkable circum- 
 stances attendarit on the birth of Christ, both before 
 and after the event. The temptation of Christ, the 
 transfiguration of C](jrist, related by Matthew, Mark, 
 and Luke, whb were not present, and wholly omitted 
 by John who is said to have witnessed it. The mar- 
 velous circumstances connected with the birtii of John 
 the Baptist; the report of the preaching of the Bap 
 tist; the prayer of Christ in Gethseniane; Peter's de- 
 nial of Christ; the dream of Pilate's wife; the con- 
 versation between Pilate and the priests; that between 
 Judas and the priests, and that between the soldiers 
 and priests; and finally the alleged fact of the resur- 
 rection of Christ. 3. The gospels were written in the 
 interest of a cause which the writers had espoused 
 and which they were desirous to promote. Now we 
 cannot rely implicitly on the statements of historians,
 
 90 THE PRO AKD CON OP 
 
 who, we know, were biased and prejudiced in their 
 minds, and who derived their information not from 
 personal observation, but received it from common 
 report. We are all of us acquainted with men whose 
 intelligence and honesty we would not question; but 
 whose statements in relation to an extraordinary oc- 
 currence made under the circumstances in which the 
 writers of the gospels were placed, we could not ac- 
 cept. Unless these writers were more than human, 
 they certainly were liable to be mistaken. They con- 
 stantly misunderstood and misapprehended Christ's 
 words while he was living, and what assurance have 
 we that they did not do the same thing after he was 
 dead ? 
 
 It may be said that these writers were infallibly in- 
 spired, and thus preserved from all liability to err. 
 
 The question whether they were or not, will be next 
 considered. 
 
 Were the writ^trs of the four gospels usvaii- 
 
 LIBLY inspired ? 
 
 The affirmative of this question is often asserted in 
 the most positive terms, and it has been accepted as 
 truth very generally in the Christian world. It only 
 requires the statement of a few facts to show that it 
 is a wholly gratuitous assumption. 
 
 1. There is no proof that either God or Christ, ever 
 directed or authorized them to write the books in 
 question. 
 
 2. There is no proof that they had the most distant 
 idea that these books would be collected, compiised 
 in a volume, and transmitted to succeeding genera- 
 tions.
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 91 
 
 8. They nowhere assert or intimate that they poss- 
 essed such inspiration. 
 
 It may be said that if they do not make this claim 
 for themselves, Paul makes it for them, where he as- 
 serts that, "All scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God." We reply that Paul's declaration has nothing 
 to do with the question before us, first, because it says 
 not one word about infallible inspiration, and second, 
 because when he made the declaration the gospels 
 had not been written, and were therefore not in exist- 
 ence. We may be told that Christ promised to his 
 disciples the aid of the " Holy Spirit," which would 
 direct them what to say in all emergencies, and " lead 
 them into all truth." Without questioning whether 
 Christ made such a promise or not, and taking it for 
 granted that he did, we proceed to inquire ; was the 
 promise fulfilled to the extent of making the disciples 
 infallible ? The Holy Spirit we are informed in the 
 the gospels was bestowed upon the disciples between 
 the time of Christ's crucifixion and his ascension into 
 heaven. From this time forward were the disciples 
 infallible ? The numerous contradictions, discrepen- 
 cies, and mistakes contained in the gospels, some of 
 which we have pointed out in this book, prove eitlier 
 that they were not written by the disciples, or if they 
 were, they were not infallibly inspired. Besides, when 
 the questions came before the disciples of whether the 
 gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and whether 
 the Gentiles should observe the ceremonial law of 
 Moses, they settled them not by authority of infallible 
 inspiration, but the first question was settled in Peter's 
 mind by a special vision, and the other by calling a 
 Council of the disciples to consider the question, to 
 deliberate upon it, to discuss it, and after different
 
 92 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 opinions had been expressed on it, it was finaly de- 
 cided in accordance with a proposal made by James 
 who occupied a middle ground on the subject. Now, 
 if the disciples were conscious of the possession of 
 infallibility, or if they believed themselves to be infal- 
 lible, hers was a fine opportunity for them to assert 
 it, and to make a display of it, but they seem not to 
 have thought of any such thing. 
 
 The failure in the fulfilment of this promise said 
 to have been made to the disciples, is paralleled by 
 the failure of other promises of a similar nature. 
 The writers of the gospels, state that Christ promised 
 in the most emphatic and unequivocal manner that 
 after his ascension into heaven he would return to 
 earth during the life time of some at least of his disci- 
 ples, that then he would be seated upon "the throne 
 of his glory, and his disciples should also be seated " 
 on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 The generation then living was not to pass away be- 
 fore this promise was to be fulfiled. (Matt, x, 23, xiv, 
 29-35 ; M^irk xiii, 28-31 ; Lukexxi, 27-32 ; Matt, xvi, 
 27, 28 ; MaTk viii, 38. and ix, 1 ; Luke ix, 26, 27 ; 
 Matt, xix, 28.) In the Epistles of the New Testament 
 this coming of Christ is often alluded to, and the be- 
 lief expressed that it was to take place during the 
 natural life of the writers. (See 2 Thes. i, 6-10 ; 
 1 Cor. xi, 6 ; 1 Tim. vi, 14 ; James v, 7, 8 ; 1 Thess. 
 iii, 13, and v, 23 ; 2 Thess. iii, 5 ; Heb. x, 25, aud 37 ; 
 1 John ii, 28 ; 1 Thess. v, 1-4, and iv, 13-17 ; 1 Cor. 
 XV, 51, 52 ; 1 Peter vii, 7.) It is a well known fact 
 that the early Christians lived in the constant expec- 
 tation of the speedy return, or second advent of Christ to 
 this world, at which time the dead were to be raised, the 
 living changed from mortality to immortality, Christ's
 
 SUPERNATURAIi RELIGION. 93 
 
 kingdom established here on earth, and the saints to 
 rule and reign with him in his kingdom. 
 
 Another promise said to have been made by Christ 
 was that the believers in his gospel should be endowed 
 with the power of casting out devils, of speaking with 
 new tongues, of being invulnerable to the poison of 
 serpents, or even of the most deadly poison drank by 
 them. They should also be able to restore the sick to 
 health by the laying on of hands. See Mark xvi, 17, 
 18. 
 
 Now as there has been no such personal second ad- 
 vent of Christ, as the dead have not been raised, nor 
 the living changed, as no thrones have been estab- 
 lished for the occupancy of the disciples, and as be- 
 lievers in the gospel have not the power to do the 
 things which were predicted, therefore these promises 
 have not been fulfilled. It follows that either Christ 
 made no such promises, or if he did, he was mistaken 
 in his predictions. Take whichever horn of the di- 
 lema we may, it follows that the gospel writers were 
 not infallibly inspired. Either they were mistaken in 
 attributing these promises to Christ, or they were mis- 
 taken in believing that they would be fulfilled. 
 
 What we Do and what we Do Not know about 
 THE Bible. 
 
 The Old Testament is a collection of Jewish sacred 
 books. The number of them is 39. They were writ- 
 ten by difierent authors and at difieient periods of 
 time. At what particular time the collection was 
 made, and who the writers were, as also, the precise 
 time when they were written we do not know. We 
 are equally ignorant in regard to the persons by whom
 
 94 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 the collection was made. Some of the books are more 
 than 2500 years old. During the times of Samuel, 
 David, and Solomon, literature began to flourish, 
 records were made, h stories and narratives were 
 written, and songs and hymns were composed. The first 
 four books of the Pentateuch originated in the time 
 of Solomon, 1019 years before Christ, but the Penta- 
 teuch was not completed until the time of Josiah 641 
 before Christ. It was commenced 432 years after the 
 death of Moses, and finished in the form in which we 
 now have it 810 years after his death. The whole five 
 books are in great part compilations from previously 
 existing documents of the writers of which nothing is 
 known. The last book of the Old Testament was 
 written 397 before Christ. The Hebrew Bible abounds 
 in repetitions of history, narratives, genealogies, laws, 
 oracles, proverbs, sentences, and thoughts. If these 
 repetitions were expunged from it, it would reduce 
 the volume to nearly one-half its present size. The 
 style of composition of these books is very different. 
 In some of them it is pure, grand, and beautiful, in 
 others it is low, vulgar, mean, and poor. During 2551 
 years these books existed only in manuscript and dur- 
 ing the entire history of the Jews as a nation the care 
 of them was committed to the priests. After the 
 return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity 518 
 years before Christ, they ceased to speak the Hebrew 
 language, and from that time until 130 before Christ, 
 a period of 388 years these books were locked up in a 
 dead language, and could be read only by a very few 
 of the Jewish people. The books were originaly 
 written in continuous letters and lines, without an}' 
 division into chapters, sentences, or words, and with- 
 out punctuation. The work of copying them was a
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 95 
 
 difficult and laborious task and even the readin«^ of 
 them was attended with great difficulty. Only a few 
 copies were extant and these were held to be of great 
 pecuniary value, placing them beyond the reach of 
 the mass of the people. In regard to the preservation 
 of these books and the prevention of them from cor- 
 ruption the Jews have a variety of traditions some of 
 which are fabulous, others contradictory, and none of 
 them reliable. The first mention of the collection of 
 these books, as a whole, was by Jesus', the Son of Si- 
 rach, 130 before Christ. The first translation of the 
 books into another language was commenced about 
 286 before Christ, and finished 130 before Christ. This 
 was a Greek version called thft Alexandrian, or ver- 
 sion of the Seventy. It was the one in use in the time 
 of Christ and his Apostles, and quoted from by them. 
 This version was followed by several other Greek 
 versions. In the year 405 of the Christian era Jerome 
 finished a Latin translation from the Hebrew. From 
 this time we will consider the Old Testament in con- 
 nection with the Christian Scriptures. 
 
 The New Testament is a collection of books written 
 during the first two centuries of the Christian era. 
 They are in number 27. Some of them are historical 
 but most are epistolary. They were written by differ- 
 ent persons at different times and places. But ex- 
 cepting most of the epistles attributed to Paul, and a 
 few attributed to other writers, we do not positively 
 know tbe precise time when, place where, nor per- 
 sons by whom they were written. Most if not all the 
 epistles were written before the gospels. In regard 
 to the origin, authorship, and history of the historical 
 books, i. e. the four go?pels, but little is knotvn with 
 certainty, up to the time when they we^ separated
 
 96 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 from a number of writings relating to the same sul» 
 ject, which was near the end of the second century. 
 As Mr.Fioude well observes, '' there exists no ancieii! 
 writings whatever, of such vast moment to mankiiul 
 of which so little can be authentically known." We 
 may add that there is no part of human history of 
 equal importance that is involved in so much obscur- 
 ity as that which relates to the birth, life and death, 
 of Jesus Christ, and the life and death, of his Apos- 
 tles. Notwithstanding the vast amount of time and 
 labor which learned men have expended in endeavor- 
 ing to clear up the subject, their eiforts thug far have 
 been unavailing. It is known, however, that as Mosh- 
 iem s.iys, " not long after the ascension of Christ, sev- 
 eral histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious 
 frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by per- 
 sons whose intentions perhaps, were not bad, but 
 whose writings discovered the greatest superstition 
 and ignorance. Nor was this all ; productions ap- 
 peared which were imposed upon the world by fraud- 
 ulent men, as the writings of the holy apostles." It 
 is equally well know that at a very early period in the 
 history of the Christian church difierences of opinion 
 sprung up among Christians, occasioning the most 
 fierce and bitter controversies, and that the defenders 
 of their respective opinions did not scruple to forge 
 whole books and ascribe their authorship to Christ or 
 some of his apostles, in order to prove their doctrines. 
 The books of the New Testament were selected from 
 a number of other gospels and epistles, but at what 
 particular time or by whom, is not certainly known. 
 Irena^uswho lived A. D. 182, is the first of the Fath- 
 ers who nq^ntions the four gospels by name. In the 
 year 368 the Council of Laodicea gave a catalogue of
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 97 
 
 all books in the New Testament. In 397 at the third 
 council of Carthage the books of the Old and New 
 Testament, as they now stand in the Bible were pro- 
 nounced canonical, and the reading of the apocryphal 
 books in the churches was forbidden. At the council 
 of Chalcedon in 401 the New Testament was used as 
 the ultimate standard of appeal, and a decree of Pope 
 Innocent 1, about that time, confirming the selection 
 which had been previously made, established the 
 canon as it now stands. 
 
 Most of the original manuscripts from which our 
 New Testament books were selected have long been 
 lost. All that are now extant have been collected and 
 published in a book called the Apocryphal New Tes- 
 tament. This book is about the same size as the one 
 supposed to be genuine. 
 
 During 1200 years or until the art of printing was 
 discovered the books of the New Testament were in 
 manuscript only and mainly in the hands of the cler- 
 gy. The first translation of the Bible into English 
 was by Wicklifle in 1360. This was not printed ex- 
 cept the New Testament part, and that was not done 
 until 1731. The first printed Bible in English was 
 that ot Tindal and Coverdale in lo2G. Our present 
 English version was made by order ofKing James I and 
 plinted in 1613. 
 
 The Bible as a whole has been frequently copied, 
 numerous translations have been made of it and it has 
 been printed in all the principle languages in the 
 world. 
 
 The division of the Bible into chapters was made 
 by Hugo, who lived about A. D. 1240. The division 
 of the chapters into verses was by Mordecai Nathan, 
 » Jewish Rabbi in 1475.
 
 98 THE mo AND CON OF 
 
 Our English Bible was translated not from the orig- 
 inal manuscripts of the writers, but from copies of the 
 original, none of which in the Old Testament were 
 older than the 9th century of the Christian era, and 
 none of the New Testament older than the sixth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Notwithstanding the opinion which for a long time 
 prevailed, that. in a mysterious and miraculous man- 
 ner God had taken care to preserve the inviolable pu- 
 rity of the text of the Bible, or if not that, at least the 
 purity of the original, the investigations of learned 
 men have proved that among all the copies of the orig- 
 inal Hebrew of the Old Testament, and those of the 
 Greek of the New Testament, there is not one that is 
 perfect, or any two of either that exactly agree. And 
 among all the translations and versions, whether of 
 private individuals or of authorized todies of men, 
 there is not two that are alike. Kennicott and De 
 Rossi spent thirty-six years in collecting ancient He- 
 brew and Samaritan manuscripts of the Old Testa- 
 ment. They obtained and compared more than 1200 
 copies, and De Rossi published four quarto volumes 
 of various readings found in about -iOO manuscripts 
 which he examined. The variations amounted to 
 over 130,000. 
 
 The New Testament contains seven books, the au- 
 thenticity of which was disputed for a long time by 
 man}' in the early Christian church, and Dr. Lardner 
 says, they are "not fit to be alledged as affording suf- 
 ficent proof of any doctrine." These books are He- 
 brews, James, 2ud and 3d John, Jude, i>nd Peter, and 
 Revelations. It also contains passages which by some 
 learned men are deemed to be spurious. Such as 
 Matt, i, 17-25, and whole of 2nd chapter ; the Isl and
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 99 
 
 2nd chapters of Luke, except the four first verses, and 
 many other accounts and verses which are regarded 
 as interpolations into the original text. 
 
 In our common English Bible there are a great 
 number of additions which are not contained in the 
 original, some of which at least are liable to mislead 
 the reader. Such are all the words printed in italics. 
 These were supplied by the translators. So also the 
 headings of the chapters, and in the upper margin of 
 the pages. 
 
 Finally, the work of collecting, arranging, copying 
 and translating the books of the Bible has been done 
 by human hands, by uninspired and- fallible men; 
 and by human autliority alone it has been pronounced 
 infallible in its teachings. 
 
 Obscurity of the Beblb. 
 
 That the Bible is very obscure in its teachings is 
 generally admitted by those who know most ubout it. 
 No book was ever published to which such a variety 
 of interpretations have been given. Thousands of 
 commentaries have been written upon it, by men of 
 equal talent and learning, no two of which give it the 
 same exposition. Out of the millions of believers in 
 the infallibility of its inculcations, it is not probable 
 that any two could be found who would agree in their 
 understanding of its contents. This is not wonderful 
 if we consider that the books were composed bv some 
 forty difterent authors, who lived in dilii^rent ages of 
 the world, and if we allow that the writers, like all 
 other men, were liable to entertain coullicting views 
 and to be mistaken in their opinions. But on the sup- 
 position that they wrote us they were dUec>ed by ua-
 
 100 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 erring ins[>iration, it is truly surprising that they have 
 not written, so as to be clearly and definitely under- 
 stood. What kind of revelation is that which requires 
 thousands of elaborate tomes to explain it, and then 
 when the explanation is given requires a whole library 
 of books to explain the explanation ? A few of the 
 Biblical writers seem to claim some sort of inspiration, 
 but precisely what they meant by it we do not know. 
 We have plent^^ of men in our day who talk very 
 much as the ancient prophets did. They tell us of 
 what the Lord has saiJ to them, and come to us with 
 messages which they claim to be direct from God. 
 They seem to attribute their impressions, concerning 
 religion to the spc^cial agency of God. In this they 
 may be very honest and yet be mistaken, and so might 
 the Scripture writers, referred to. 
 
 The Bible has been very aptly compared to a box of 
 lettered wooden blocks. These blocks by being prop- 
 erly arranged can be made to express anything the 
 manipulator desires to have expressed. So by arrang- 
 ing certain texts of Scripture, the Bible may be made 
 to teach nearly all of the conflicting creeds of the nu- 
 merous Christian sects. The style of the Bible is of- 
 ten highly figurative. It abounds in hyperboles, 
 tropes, similes, parables and symbols. This makes 
 it susceptible of a variet}^ of interpretations, and re 
 ders the real meaning of the writers difiicult to ascer- 
 tain. The celebrated John Leland was a distinguish- 
 ed and very successful Baptist clergyman for more 
 than sixty years. During ail this time he was a close 
 student of the Bible. Pie availed himself of all the 
 means in his power to ascertain the true import of its 
 teachings. He counted every book, chapter, verse, 
 word, and letter between its lids. When eighty-six
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 101 
 
 years of age he made the following candid confession ; 
 "If God formed me with talents to be an expositor of 
 the holy scriptures, I have criminally neglected to im- 
 prove the talents which lie gave me , for now when I 
 am eighty-six years old, I have not the least under- 
 standing of the last nine chapters of Ezekiel ; and the 
 same is" true of a great part of the Bible. I read com- 
 mentators, but remain ignorant. My prayer is that I 
 may know and practice the truth, but I remain under 
 the cloud, groveling in the dark." See the writings of 
 Elder John Leland, page 783. 
 
 WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE BIBLE? 
 
 Select from it all that is valuable, especially the 
 grand and glorious, theoretical and practical truths 
 which it contains ; bind these into a volume, publish 
 an immense edition of the same, and put a copy into 
 the hands of every human being. Treasure up the 
 remainder and carefully preserve it as a relic of the 
 folly and superstition of past ages. 
 
 BIBLICAL PACTS WORTH REMEMBERrNG. 
 
 1. The Bible contains but two definitions of God. 
 These are, " God" is a spirit," *' God is loye." 
 
 2. The word inspiration occurs but twice in tlie 
 Bible. Once it is applied to the human understand- 
 ing, and once to the Jewish sacred Scriptures. 
 
 3. The word religion is not contained in the Old 
 Testament, and occurs but three times in the New. 
 The word religious occurs twice, and only in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 4. There is b.ut one definition of religion in the 
 Bible, and that is in James i, 27.
 
 102 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 5. The phrase " born again," occurs but three times 
 in the Bible. It was used twice by Christ and once 
 by Peter. 
 
 6. The Jews had no definite ideas on the subject of 
 a future state of existence, nor of the existence of a 
 Devil, and had no proper names for any of the angels 
 until they were carried captive to Babylon. They de- 
 rived their opinions on these subjects not from their 
 sacred scriptures but from the Magian religion. 
 
 A Chapter of Definitions. 
 
 God. The Power that controls the universe of mat- 
 ter and mind. The magnum bonum, or sum of all 
 power ; the summum bonum, or sum of all good; 
 the self-existent cause of all causes and effects. 
 
 Deail. That which stands in the way of hum^n 
 happiness. 
 
 Heaven. A state or condition of the mind and feel- 
 ings consequent on the consciousness of moral recti- 
 tude. 
 
 Hell. Self reproach and condemnation for doing 
 intentionally what we know, or believe to be wrong. 
 
 Moral Agency. The power of choosing to do 
 what we believe to be right in preference to doing 
 what we think to be wrong. 
 
 Free Agency. A self-determining power claimed 
 by some to be possessed by man by which he is enabled 
 to act in opposition to the strongest motives and con- 
 trary to his strongest inclinations. 
 
 Self-interest. The main-spring of human action. 
 "When unenlightened and misdirected it tends to mis- 
 ery. AYhen properly directed it produces the high- 
 est ggod. Not until men learn that their best interest
 
 SUPRKNATURAL RELIGION. 103 
 
 and chief good consists in promoting tlie interest and 
 happiness of tlieir fellowmen will they know how to 
 happify themselves. Man is necessarily a selfish be- 
 ing, but to human selfishness manifested in this way 
 certainly no one can object. 
 
 C(>NSCiENCE, A feeling which inclines us to do 
 what we believe to be right, and reproaches us for do- 
 ing what we think to be wrong. 
 
 Wisdom. The knowledge that the order of Nature 
 is such that the consequences of well or ill doing fol- 
 low by an immutable law and that this order cannot 
 be departed from, even by God himself, without his 
 ceasing to be God. 
 
 Folly. ,The belief that God's moral government is 
 based on contingencies, so that the consequences of 
 wrong doing may or may not be experienced by the 
 wrong doer. 
 
 Religion. Knowledge of the relation which man 
 sustains to God, and of the duties which grow out of 
 that relation, and the proper direction of the religious 
 faculties. 
 
 False Religion. Imperfect kno-v^ledge of man's 
 relation to God, and misdirection of the religious fac- 
 ulties. 
 
 Morality. Knowledge of the relation which man 
 sustains to his fellowmen and faithful discharge of the 
 duties which grow out ( f that relation. 
 
 Miracle. An effect without a sufficient cause. 
 Various definitions have been given of this term. If 
 it is defined to signify a wonder, then the world is full 
 of miracles, for surely it abounds with wonders on ev- 
 ery hand. If it signifies a suspension or counterac- 
 tion of the 4aws of Nature then miracles are plenty, 
 for the laws of Nature are being counteracted every
 
 104 THE PRO A^rD CON OP 
 
 day. It is a law of nature that water should seek its 
 own level and run down hill, but by applying suffi- 
 cient force it may be prevented from doing' either. 
 Nature's law makes all heavy bodies tend to the cen- 
 tre of our earth, but any of us can take hold of a 
 pebble or a piece of iron and force it to go in a hori- 
 zontal or perpendicular direction contrar}^ to its nat- 
 ural tendency. Do we in all such cases work a mira- 
 cle ? If by miracle is meant a special act of Divine 
 power, without the intervention of law,we are involved 
 in an inextricable difficulty ; for how can it be prov- 
 ed that any event occurs without law ? The time has 
 been when all the phenomena of nature were regarded 
 as special acts of Divine providence. This view is 
 now admitted to be erroneous. May it not be equally 
 erroneous to suppose any event to occur without law ? 
 If we say of any given phenomenon that it is miracu- 
 lous simply because we do not kiiow the cause of it, 
 what is this but asserting that we know the cause of 
 it when at the same time we admit we do not ? Be- 
 sides, if all phenomena of the cause of which we are 
 ignorant is miraculous, then again the world is full of 
 miracles, for there are plenty of phenomena of which 
 we know not the cause. The truth is that nothing is 
 miraculous that is produced by an adequate cause, 
 and therefore if miracles exist at all, they must con- 
 sist of effects without sufficient cause. It has been 
 well said that the greatest conceivable miracle would 
 be that any intelligent man should understandingly 
 believe in miracles. So far as we know anything 
 about the system of Nature the Universe is governed 
 by an order which is uniform and invariable, and no 
 deviation from the unchangeableness of this order can
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 105 
 
 be admitted without more and better proof tlmn has 
 even yet been adduced. 
 
 Faith. Confidence or trust in a thing or being bas- 
 ed on what we know or think we know of that thing 
 or being. There can be no faith that is not founded 
 on real or supposed knowledge. 
 
 Belief. An opinion produced by evidence either 
 real or imaginary. From the nature of the mind evi- 
 dence amounting to proof and perceived to be such 
 must necessarily produce conviction. Men are pas- 
 sive in the reception of their opinions ; they can by 
 no means believe or disbelieve just what they will or 
 wish, contrary to the evidence as it appears to them. 
 The utmost they can do is to deny their convictions, 
 or profess to have convictions when they have not. 
 Rational beief cannot be induced by bribes or threats 
 by promises of reward for believing, nor by threats of 
 punishment for unbelief. To undertake to gain the 
 belief of men by bribes or deter them from unbelief 
 by threats is at the best only to make of them hypo- 
 crites and slaves. 
 
 Nature. The universe of matter and of mind. The 
 aggregate of eveiy thing that exists. 
 
 Truth. A fact in Nature. When stated in human 
 language it is a statement in conformity with fact. 
 Truth in the aggregate is the aggregate of all the facts 
 that ever did, do now, or ever will exist m the Uni- 
 verse. 
 
 Matter. A form of Spirit tangible to the hum in 
 senses. 
 
 Spirit. A form of Matter not cognizable by the 
 senses. All cognizable forms of matter are incarna- 
 tions of the inlinite spirit of the universe. As forms 
 they are finite and perishable, but the material of
 
 106 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 which they are composed is indestructible, and when 
 \hem forms are destroyed, enters into the composi- 
 tion of other forms. Thus the infinite is being con- 
 stantly resolved into the finite and the finite into the in- 
 finite. This is the real work of creation which never 
 h;ul a beginning and can never have an end. Nothing 
 is lost in nature. Only two things can be annihilated, 
 one is form, the other is phenomena. The form of 
 the human body, or of any other body which exists to- 
 day, must ultimately be decomposed and resolved 
 back into its original elements to enter into the com- 
 position of other forms. The lightnings fiash and 
 thunders roar so visible to our senses for a moment, 
 in a moment ceases to be, and although a similar 
 phenomenon may appear the same, one can never be 
 reproduced. That the infinite Spirit of the universe 
 possesses inte ligence is proved from the fact that in- 
 telligence exists in all animated beings. What nature 
 does not contain could never be derived from nature. 
 The whole question of the immortality and personal 
 consciousness and identity of the human mind may 
 be settled by simply deciding the question, is mind an 
 entity or a phenomenon. The arguments usuall}' 
 adduced to prove the immortal personal conscious- 
 ness of man are merely inferential, and however ]o^i- 
 cal they may be, they do not demonstrate, but only 
 render it probable. All that relates to the future be- 
 yond the present moment relates to the unknown, and 
 is a mere matter of opinion. For wise and good pur- 
 poses Nature has so ordered it that we can have no 
 positive knowledge of the future. Every human be- 
 ing knows or believes just as much about the future 
 as in his present state of development he ought to 
 know. He who cannot be thankful to God for all
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 107 
 
 tnat is past and trust bim for all that is to come is 
 "without hope and without God in the world." 
 However real the future may be it is unknown to us. 
 The present is real ; we live in tlie present, and if we 
 were more solicitous to discharge with fidelity the du- 
 ties of the present and less disinclined to trust God to 
 dispose of us as he iiiliis infinite wisdom and goodness 
 deems best, it would be far better for the interest and 
 happiness of us all. The reality of a future state of 
 existence for man can be demonstrated positively only 
 by the reappearance in proper person, in a spiiitual 
 but tangible form, of some person with whom we were 
 well acquainted and whom we knew to have died be- 
 yond the possibility of doubt. Some men in our day 
 claim to have this evidence. We will not dispute it; 
 if the fact be so let it be proved. 
 
 Natural. Any event or phenomonon which occurs 
 in the established order of events or which constitutes 
 both an etiect and a cause in the interminable chain of 
 causes and effects which never h id a beginning and 
 can have no end. 
 
 Supernatural. That which is above or Ijeyond 
 Nature. As Nature, or the universe of matter and 
 mind is infinite, boundless, and illimitable, there can 
 be nothing above or beyond it. The power that con- 
 trols our bodies resides in and not outside of the 
 body. There can be no outside to that which is 
 boundless in extent. The infinite power of the Uni- 
 verse pervades every part of it and is present in every 
 phenomonon of matter or of mind. No event can be 
 supernatural. 
 
 Reveal. To make known to the mind. 
 
 Revelation. That which is made known to the 
 mind, and of which the mind was previously ignorant.
 
 108 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 As all our knowledge is obtained through the medium 
 of the senses, whatever is communicated to the mind 
 must be communicated through that medium. When- 
 ever men claim to have knowledge which they have 
 derived through some other channel, we may set them 
 down as self-deceived or imposters. 
 
 Inspiration. The voluntary or spontaneous action 
 of the inherent powers and faculties of the human 
 mind. All men are inspired but not all to the same 
 extent. The highest inspiration is found in those 
 men whose various faculties are harmoniously devel- 
 oped to the greatest degree. 
 
 Axiomatic, or Self-evident Truth, 
 
 It is an io controvertible fact that all human beings 
 are introduced into the present state of existence in a 
 condition of entire ignorance, and all that thej^ ever 
 know they are obliged to learn. By means of the 
 senses, which are the windows of the mind, we be- 
 come acquainted with ourselves and v;jt]i external na- 
 ture around us, and all its varied phenomena. With- 
 out sensation there could be no consciousness ; with- 
 out consciousness no intelligence, and without in- 
 telligence the mind would be a blank. By obser- 
 vation and experience we acquire a knowledge of 
 facts as they exist in nature. These facts we make 
 the basis of what we call reasoning. We can reason 
 only from what we know or think we know. Reason- 
 ing consists in deducing inferences from real or sup- 
 posed facts. If the premises from which we reason 
 are correct, and our reasoning is correct, the conclu- 
 sion to which we arrive will be correct. On the other 
 hand, if our premises are false, or if our reasoning is
 
 BUPERNA-TITRAL RELIGION. 109 
 
 false, the conclusion will also be false. It must not 
 be forgotten that we can reason correctly from false 
 premises, bui in all such cases the conclusion will be 
 as false as the premises themselves. It is highly im - 
 portant, therefore, that in all our reasonings we be 
 quite sure that our premises are correct. The conclu- 
 sions to which we arrive by the process of reasoning 
 constitute our opinions, as distinguished from what 
 we know by the evidence of our senses. 
 
 Now truth may be classified under three heads : 
 1. Physical trulh ; 2. Intellectual truth ; 3. Moral 
 truth. The first consists of facts as they exist in 
 nature, and must be verified by the testimony of the 
 senses. The second consists of opinions which must 
 be sanctioned by sound logical reasoning. The third 
 consists of our opinions in regard to our obligations 
 and duties toward our fellow-men, and must be tested 
 by our sense of right and justice, and by their practi- 
 cal utility in the world. 
 
 Nature, then, is the great standard of truth, and 
 to her teachings must be made the ultimate appeal. 
 Our understanding of her teachings may be imper- 
 fect ; our interpretation of her lessons maybe errone- 
 ous, but Nature never lies, she makes no mistakes, 
 commits no errors, is guilty of no blunders. Every 
 man must interpret her as best he can. Truth is the 
 natural food of the mind, as bread is of the body. 
 All truth necessary for man to know, is adapted to his 
 capacities and powers. Truth must be its own wit- 
 ness. It must approve itself to our senses, our reason 
 and our moral sense. 
 
 When the mind has attained sufficient maturity, it 
 readily ^distinguishes truth from error, just as we 
 leam to distinguish food that is wholesome from that
 
 110 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 which is unwholesome. As the minds of men are in 
 different stages of development, all cannot see alike, 
 and hence there are, and must be, different opinions 
 among them. But notwithstanding the great diversit}'- 
 of human beliefs, there are certain cardinal principles 
 wliicli will be accepted as true by all intelligent men. 
 These doctrines are so obviously true that no arg.u- 
 ment is needed to sustain them. The simple state- 
 ment of them in an intelligible form is sufficient to 
 carry conviciion to every unbiased mind. These 
 truths we call axiomatic or self-evident, and they con- 
 stitute, perhaps, the best test to apply to every dogma 
 or proposition which may be presented for our con- 
 sideration. 
 
 We "vCill now make a statement of some of these 
 self-evident truths, and point out the manner of their 
 application. 
 
 1. The whole of a thing is greater than a part of it. 
 
 2. Nothing can be, and not be, at the same instant. 
 
 3. Two solid substances cannot occupy the same 
 space at the same instant of time. 
 
 4. No created being can be a hundred years old the 
 moment he begins to exist. 
 
 5. No created being can be equal to his creator. 
 
 6. No truth can contradict any other truth. 
 
 7. Two contradictory statements cannot both be 
 true. 
 
 8. A finite mind cannot comprehenu the infinite. 
 
 9. Infinite attributes are uncommunicable. 
 
 10. Under the government of a being who is all- 
 wise, all-powerful and all-good, absolute evil cannot 
 possibly exist. 
 
 11. An absolutely good being cannot create an ab- 
 solutely bad being.
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 1^ 
 
 12. Only one being possessed of infinite attributes 
 can exist in the Universe. 
 
 13. God cannot create a totally depraved being. 
 
 14. A superior being who creates an inferior, know- 
 ing that he will be cursed by his existence, is not good 
 to that being. 
 
 15. A law to which there is annexed a penalty 
 wlfich may be averted, can have no restraining influ- 
 ence over viciously inclined misn. 
 
 16. A law having a penalty which, if inflicted, will 
 defeat the object of the law, is not a wise law. 
 
 17. There can be no end to that which is endless. 
 
 18. To inflict punishment upon an innocent person, 
 which is due only to the guilty, is a double act of 
 gross outrage upon every [)rinciple of justice. 
 
 19. No being can incur guilt or punishment for 
 acting in accordance with the Jaws of his own na- 
 ture. 
 
 20. The number one cannot be made to express 
 more than one. 
 
 21. .The number three cannot be made to express 
 less than three. 
 
 22. No man is under any obliLJ-ation to believe what 
 appears to him to contradict his reason or sense of, 
 right and justice. 
 
 23. No incredible statement is to be believed, unless 
 it is sustained by an amount of evidence, which would 
 make it more unrea.sun.blc to reject the evidence than 
 it would be to accept the statement. 
 
 24. The remission of the penalty of a law pre- 
 supposes or implies that the' penalty is- not just and 
 wise. * 
 
 We propose now to apply the above truths as a test 
 to some of the dogmas of popular Christianity. We
 
 113 TBCET PRO AND CON OP 
 
 shall see that they crash through the creeds and com- 
 mandments of men, scattering them like leaves before 
 a mighty wind. These dogmas, when put in the form 
 of propositions, may be stated as follows : 
 
 1. There exists a personal being called the Devil, a 
 creature of God, all of whose attributes are positively 
 evil, unmixed with the least panicle of good. Com- 
 pare this with truth No. 11. 
 
 2. Mankind are born into the wor^a with totally 
 corrupt and depraved natures, ^ud all their inclina- 
 tions are to evil, and only evil, and that continually. 
 Compare with truths Nos. 13 and 19. 
 
 3. God is one, but nevertheless exists in three per- 
 sons. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and yet there are 
 not three persons, but one person. Compare with 
 truths Nos. 20 and 21. 
 
 4. Jesus Christ, although a creature of God, (see 
 Rev. iii. 14) yet possessed all the attributes of Divini- 
 ty. Compare with truths Nos. 9 and 12. 
 
 5. Evil is positive and absolute, inasmuclr as it is 
 destined to reign over millions of human beings for- 
 ever, thereby rendering their existence a curse instead 
 of a blessing. Compare with tiuths Nos. 10 and 14. 
 
 6. The penalty of God's law, after it has been in- 
 curied by the transgressor, may be averted by timely 
 repentance. Compare with truths Nos. 15 and 24. 
 
 7. The penalty of God's law, if inflicted on the 
 violater of it, will place him in a condition that will 
 forever render it impossible for him to obey the law. 
 Compare with truth No. 16. 
 
 8. The penalty of God's law is endless punishment, 
 and yet Christ endured the penalty in his sufferings 
 and death upon the cross. Compare with truth No. 
 17.
 
 SUPE«NATUI{AL EELIGTON. 113 
 
 9. The penalty of God's law, which had been in- 
 curred by all mankind, was inflicted on Jesus Christ, 
 who had violated no law, incurred no penalty, and 
 was an entirely innocent person. Compare with truth 
 No. 18. 
 
 10. There are certain theological and religious doc- 
 trines which we are required to believe, whether they 
 appear to us reasonable or not, and for not believing 
 them we incur the penalty of endless damnation. 
 Compare with truth No. 22. 
 
 11. The Bible contains statements in relation to 
 occurrences and events which, if the same were 
 made at the present day, we would not believe 
 even on the authority of living witnesses, and yet 
 we are requested to believe these statements on tlie 
 authority of men who lived and wrote long after 
 the events are said to have happened, men who could 
 not have been eye-witnesses of what they relate, and 
 of whose competencj'^ as witnesses, and reputation for 
 truth and veracity we know nothing. Compare with 
 truth No. 23. 
 
 Now as truth is always consistent with itself, and 
 as the above eleven propositions directly contradict 
 the correspondingly numbered propo»*itionH in the list 
 of self-evident truths, it follows iliat one or the other 
 nmst be ffflse. Which il is, the reader can judge.
 
 114 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Of what has been said in the foregoing pages, this 
 is the sum. From the earliest dawn of intelligence 
 and religion among men, truth and error, fact and fic- 
 tion, reason and superstition have been strangely com- 
 mingled. He who lends a helping hand in the work 
 of sifting the wheat from the chaff, is a public bene- 
 factor. Wherevei ignorance prevails, superstition 
 abounds ; wherever reason predominates superstition 
 dies. First of all it is necessary to assert and main- 
 tain the supremacy and authority of pure reason o\er 
 all authority which is opposed to reason. No one 
 thing has served more to perpetuate ignorance and 
 superstition than the idea that the Supreme Ruler of 
 the Universe interferes in an exceptional manner with 
 the affairs of mankin4, and that he has given them 
 an infallible revelation in book form of his will und 
 purpose concerning them. This idea was born of 
 ignorance, and has been kept in being by ignorance 
 and imposture. So long as men honestly believe that 
 they have a creed sanctioned by the authority of God, 
 and that belief in it is essential to the welfare of man 
 and society in this world, and indispensable to se(.ure 
 his happiness in eternity, so long, of necessity, there 
 must be bigots and persecutors in the world. And in 
 proportion as this idea prevails among the massei of
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 115 
 
 men, they must be mental and moral slaves, the dupes 
 of imposition, the victims of a miserable superstition. 
 The chain of evidence by which it is claimed that the 
 Bible is in a special and exceptional sense the " Word 
 of God," has only to be critically examined to dis- 
 cover that it is only a rope of sand. The internal 
 evidence is, if possible, still worse. It bears evident 
 marks of a human origin. Like everything else in 
 nature, or in art, it may be made the instrument of 
 good or evil. It is valuable only in proportion to the 
 amount of truth that it contains. The errors con- 
 tained in it are more pernicious than if found any- 
 where else, because they are attributed to God, and 
 men are taught to believe that they must be accepted 
 because God spoke them.- There is no proof that God 
 ever spoke to any man in an audible voice, that he 
 ever exhibited himself in proper person, nor that he 
 ever interpolated into the system of Nature a single 
 miracle, nor that he ever revealed himself in any 
 other way than through the medium of the human 
 faculties. 
 
 The idea of the existence of a semi-omnipotent evil 
 spirit, called the Devil, who is a rival of God in the 
 government of the world, and who is constantly 
 thwarting him in his designs and defeating his pur- 
 poses, is a monstrous conception of a weak, ignorant 
 and debased mind. God could not create such a 
 being for want of material out of which to construct 
 him. He could not create himself for the same rea- 
 son. The only devil that men need to guard them- 
 selves against is the one each man carries around with 
 him in his own bosom. A strict watch over that will 
 insure us against all harm from any devil that exists 
 in the Universe.
 
 116 THE PBO AND "CON OF 
 
 The various theologies in the world are made up of 
 the opinions of men about religion. They are the f 
 systematized thoughts of men on that important and 
 interesting subject. Religion is one thing, the thoughts 
 of men about religion are another and sometimes a 
 very different thing. When these theologies are made 
 a substitute for religion, they inflict a double curse 
 upon mankind. First, by displacing religion, and 
 second by establishing a fraud and an imposition. 
 Hence it is that the popular religion of the day in its 
 organized form is a sham. It sets up a false standard 
 of respectability, virtue and morality. It attaches 
 more importance to belief than to practice ; to faith 
 than to character and life. The man who is punctili- 
 ous in performing the outward rites and ceremonies 
 of religion, although an extortioner or a defaulter, or 
 proud, haughty, vain, morose, selfish and exclusive, 
 is thought to be more religious and more in favor with 
 God than the man who disregards the ceremonies and 
 professions, but is nevertheless kind, generous, be- 
 nevolent and good. This form of religion is for the 
 most part wholly artificial and uncongenial with the 
 nature of man. Not only is this fact admitted by its 
 advocates, when they insist that it can neither be un- 
 derstood nor embraced by man until he experiences a 
 change of nature, but the fact that, notwithstanding 
 the vast and ponderous machinery which is employed 
 in its propagation, its adherents in this country, at 
 least, constitute a minority of the people, proves that 
 it is artificial rather than natural. When we consider 
 the hundreds of thousands of clergymen and mission- 
 aries who are engaged in its propagation, the vast 
 sums of money employed for the same purpose, the 
 millions of Bibles that have been circulated all over
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 117 
 
 the world, the trillions of tracts, papers, sermons, 
 periodicals and books that have been published in its 
 interest, the wonder is, not that the converts are so 
 many, but that they are so few. And the fact that 
 they are so few cannot be accounted for only by the 
 truth that, as a whole, the system is at war with the 
 nature of man. That it is unsatisfactory to its adhe- 
 rents, is evinced by the fact that so many of them tell 
 us that if they believed there was no endless punish- 
 ment, they would "take their fill of sin in this world" 
 without regard to God or the interests of humanity. 
 And yet they profess to be par excellence^ the lovers of 
 God and maa. With all such persons religion is a 
 cross, a burden, a mere make-shift to get into heaven, 
 a choice between two evils. It is a terrible thing to 
 be religious, but it is better to be so than it is to go to 
 hell. How much more manly, and noble and truth- 
 ful is the sentiment of the true religionist. If there 
 were no God, no heaven, no hell, no future state of ex- 
 istence, he would love and practice virtue for its own 
 sake, and for the joy and peace it imparts to the soul. 
 What a mistake it is to suppose that it is necessary tr 
 make ourselves miserable on earth in order to be 
 happy in heaven. 
 
 The Priesthood is a human institution. It was 
 founded on the idea that God is angry with his crea- 
 tures, and that his wrath can be propitiated and his 
 favor secured by offerings of presents, by sacrifices 
 of fruits and animals, and by the performance of 
 pompous and imposing rites and ceremonies. Hence 
 the supposed necessity of setting apart a class of men 
 to do tills work. The institution is based on a false- 
 hood. The removal of the error will cause the super- 
 stition to topple to the ground. Originally the priest-
 
 118 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 ly and kingly Offices were nnited in the same man. 
 Priestcraft and kingcraft have been mutual helps to 
 each other. Together they have inflicted untold woes 
 upon the children of men, by depriving them of their 
 inalienable rights, and by imposing upon them bur- 
 dens " which neither we nor our fathers were able to 
 bear." 
 
 Undoubtedly the Priesthood, like all the other 
 learned professions, is composed of both good and 
 bad men. But on the score of merit, it cannot justly 
 claim any superiority over the others. Doubtless the 
 Clergy are no better, nor any worse than the average 
 of men, only so far as the false pos.tion which they 
 occup3^ makes them so. With them the business of 
 theological and religious teaching is a profession and 
 a means of obtaining a livelihood. Before they enter 
 upon their work, they must, before God and man, 
 make solemn professions of faith in a certain creed 
 to which they are expected to adhere and defend dur- 
 ing life. On their doing this, their living depends. 
 They have a pecuniary interest at stake. The creed 
 must be maintained, missionary work must be done, 
 contributions must be raised, revival excitements must 
 begotten up, converts rhust be made, for all this brings 
 grist to their mill. They are conservative in their 
 tendencies, opposed to all innovation, tenacious and 
 bigoted in their opinions and blind to all newly-dis- 
 covered truth. They can seldom see the word 
 truth, because, with them, it is covered by a dollar. 
 Their occupation leads them into the practice of con- 
 scious or unconscious hypocrisy. They assume a 
 character before the people that they by no means 
 maintain in tlieir families, or when in company with 
 each other. However grave, sanctimonious and cir-
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 119 
 
 cumspect they may appear in public, when assembled 
 in company by themselves, they are the most jolly of 
 men. They can then crack their jokes, tell funny 
 stories, relate smutty anecdotes and indulge in low 
 gossip to an extent unequaled by any except profes- 
 sional libertines. They denounce human selfishness, 
 and are of all men the most selfish ; declaim against 
 avarice, and are mercenary and avaricious ; preach 
 against pride, fashion and love of the word, and yet 
 are as proud, as servile imitators of fashion, and man- 
 ifest as much of the love of the world as other men. 
 They insist on the necessity of self-denial, but think 
 themselves entitled to the most comfortable places, 
 the best bits, the choicest dainties, the lion's share of 
 all the good things of life. They profess to be awful- 
 ly concerned and anxious for the welfare of poor sin- 
 ners, but their sleek, smooth, well-to-do appearance 
 gives no indication of excessive anxiety. They claim 
 that men in their natural state are totally depraved, 
 and yet, in this country, at least, they profess to be- 
 lieve in a free government, founded on the principle 
 that the people have a right to govern themselves, an 
 inconsistency so glaring that it makes us suspicious 
 of their sincerity. 
 
 The art of proselyting they understand to perfec- 
 tion. This is an important part of their business. 
 However ignorant they may be on all other subjects, 
 this they perfectly well understand. They are in 
 possession of all the accumulated experience of a 
 long line of predecessors extending through all of the 
 past ages. They know liuman nature well and how 
 to take advantage of its weaknesses. They make 
 their appeals to the superstitious, selfish hopes and 
 fears of ignorant men, and having what Archimedes
 
 120 THE PRO AND CON OP 
 
 only wanted, another world on which to plant their 
 machinery. It is no wonder that in almost all past 
 time they have moved this at their pleasure. They 
 tax all their ingenuity and eloquence in describing 
 the beauties of a heaven about which they know 
 nothing, and a hell of which they are equally igno- 
 rant, and the one they promise as a reward to all who 
 embrace their doctrines, the other they threaten as a 
 punishment to be inflicted on all who do not. In this 
 way they may succeed, perhaps, in luring some and 
 entrancing others, but no man was ever made really 
 any better by being actuated by such selfish consid- 
 erations. They condemn human selfishness and yet 
 cultivate and strengthen it by making constant ap- 
 peals to it. They are the greatest beggars in the 
 world. Their horseleech cry of give, give, can be 
 heard on the mountains and in the valleys, in the 
 public streets and in the churches. At every public 
 meeting ostensibly for the worship of God, the con- 
 tribution box is passed around and the people are 
 entreated in God's name to give. The people are as- 
 sured that if they will give, God will restore to ihera 
 four-fold, but not one of them will stand sponsor for 
 the fulfillment of the promise or guarantee the refund- 
 ing of the gift in case it is not. In a thousand vaji- 
 ety of ways vast sums of money are raised by these 
 men which goes to help the warring sects to vie with 
 each other in building costly churches and to support 
 a class of useless drones in the human hive. 
 
 The same envyings and jealousies that exist among 
 the members of other learned professions exist among 
 them. They will unscrupulously resort to measures 
 to supplant a brother in an advantageous situation, 
 or in the esteem and affections of the people which
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION, 121 
 
 lawyers and physicians scorn to adopt, and have too 
 great a sense of horror and manhood to think of 
 adopting. If one of their number happens to become 
 convinced of the erroneousness of his creed and has 
 independence and moral courage enough to avo-v his 
 honest opinions, the rest will pounce on him like a 
 hawk upon a chicken. They will pursue him with 
 misrepresentations and slander, hurl at him the epi- 
 thets of " infidelity," emissary of Satan," " enemy of 
 religion," call him a Judas, a renegade, an apostate, 
 ostracize him from society if they can, and all to 
 connteract his influence in opposition to their secta- 
 rian views. On the other hand if one of their pro- 
 fession is accused of any crime, the rest of the fra- 
 ternity will gather around him, form a solid phalanx, 
 and shield him from exposure if they can. The pecu- 
 liar position occupied by these men brings them into 
 close relation to the female sex. They knowing that 
 women are more susceptible of religious as well as 
 superstitious influence than men, regard them as their 
 right-hand weapon of offensive and defensive war. 
 They rely mainly on them to further their designs. 
 Women educated to believe tliat they must depend on 
 men for support and protection, will inevitably be in- 
 clined to look up to the clergy for religious guidance 
 and instruction. This brings them into frequent and 
 familiar intimacy with that class of men. What has 
 been the result ? Not only are our sectarian churches 
 made up principally of women and children, but the 
 history of the priesthood in all ages and countries 
 proves that by no other class of professional' men have 
 so many crimes against female virtue been committed 
 as by them. 
 The clergy profess to look upon what they call InS-
 
 122 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 delity aud Materialism with the utmost horror and de- 
 testation. They represent that the Materialistic doc- 
 trines are destructive of all joy and peace on earth, 
 and deprive us of all our bright hopes and anticipations 
 in regard to the future. Apparently they are entire- 
 ly unconscious of the fact that they themselves are con- 
 stantly promulgating a doctrine as much more horri- 
 ble than anything in Materialism as it is in the power 
 of the human imagination to conceive. At the very 
 worst, even, ultra-Materialism would do nothing worse 
 than consign us to the quiet sleep of non-existence or 
 annihilation, whereas the doctrine of the clergy would 
 involve a majority of our race in miseries untold, nev- 
 er-ending and indescribable. All, therefore, who hope 
 for a future blissful existence, must desire it with the 
 full knowledge that if they have it, they enjoy it 
 at the expense of the endless and inconceivable sufler- 
 in^s of millions of their fellow men. Can a more 
 monstrous exhibition of supreme selfishness be con- 
 ceived ? 
 
 These men claim, too, that by some mysterious su- 
 pernatural process they have experienced such a 
 change of nature, such a regeneration of character, 
 such a sanctification of mind and heart as fits them to 
 be the month-pieces of God, and the leaders and in- 
 structors of mankind. But of what use is it for them to 
 pretend to any superior sanctity, when all intelligent 
 men know, and all the world ought to know, that they 
 "are men of like passions as others," that they have 
 the same appetites, passions, desires, faults and foibles 
 that all nien have. The criminal records of the coun- 
 try prove, that in proportion to their numbers no class 
 of educated men furnish a greater number of the in- 
 mates of our jails and prisons than the clergy.
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 123 
 
 Now there are in the^ United States nearly fifty thou- 
 sand clergymen. We would utilize this element of so- 
 ciety. That portion of them whi), by their educa- 
 tion, talents and moral worth are qualified for the 
 work, we would have converted into teachers in our 
 schools and seminaries of learning, public lecturers 
 and leaders of the people in the great work of reform. 
 We would have them teach their fellow men on those 
 subjects about which they have some positive knowl- 
 edge, and in relation to which it is of the utmost im- 
 portance that they be informed. We wouid have 
 them teach the people to know themselves, to do their 
 own thinking, to form their own opinions, to under- 
 stand the laws of their own nature, and the conditions 
 on which the prosperity and happiness of human be- 
 ings depend. We would place them on a level with 
 the rest of mankind, give them the same chances, the 
 same opportunities, and let them depend on themselves, 
 instead of LAug merely dependents upon others. As 
 for the rest, we would have them expend the force and 
 energy which they now spend for naught in some 
 branches of trade, or agriculture, and thereby make 
 themselves a blessing to the world. 
 
 To this, or something like this, it must come at last. 
 The people will not always suSer themselves to be led 
 hoodwinked to their own destruction. A revolt is sure 
 to come, and when it does come it is to be hoped that 
 the crimes of the priesthood against humanity will not 
 be too vividly remembered against them, and that the 
 sins of their predecessors who lived in the dead past 
 will not be visited on those who exist in the living 
 present. 
 
 Religion is natural to man. It is not an exotic which 
 must be grafted upon him, but is indigenous in the soil
 
 124 THE PKO AKD CON OP 
 
 of his heart and mind. God has endowed him with re 
 ligious faculties which seek gratification. It is only 
 necessary to develop and properly direct the religious 
 powers to make him all that religion requires. Man's re- 
 lio^ious faculties, like all his other faculties, are liable 
 to be misdirected. He possesses no appetite, no pas- 
 sion, no faculty that is not in itself good. All that is 
 wrong in man consists in the perversion or abuse of 
 powers which are in themselves good. When his re- 
 ligious faculties are properly directed, they tend to 
 good, and only good, both to himself and his fellow 
 men. When misdirected they are liable to produce 
 an incalculable amount of mischief. It is a law of na- 
 ture that the very best things are capable of being con- 
 verted into the very worst. Thus it is that religion 
 when perverted may become a curse to its possessor 
 and render him a curse to the world. Woe to the 
 world when a religious fanatic or monomaniac is let 
 loose in it! Conceiving that he only has God's truth, 
 and that the salvation of the world depends upon the 
 universal acceptance of it by men, and that all who 
 do not accept it are the enemies of God and religion, 
 he goes forth full of bigotry and intolerance, scatter- 
 ing firebrands, arrows and death in the world, and de- 
 nounces the thunderbolts of God's wrath upon all he 
 deems to be God's foes. Animated by a zeal without 
 knowledge, he has no mercy on others, nor even on 
 liimself. He will endure privations, encounter the 
 greatest difficulties, brave the most imminent dangers, 
 bid defiance to tortures, eagerly shed his blood or lay 
 down his life to seal his testimony. He may be com- 
 pared to a lion uncaged, a tiger unchained, a hyena 
 let loose. 
 To be truly religious is to be God-like in character
 
 SXJPBRNATTJBAIi RELIGION. 125 
 
 and disposition. To be merciful and mild, peaceable 
 and kind, cbaritable toward all, forbearing and for- 
 giving even toward enemies. Religion is true man- 
 hood. To be religious is to be a well developed man, 
 a true gentleman, a lover of all men, both good and 
 bad. The distinction between good and bad men is 
 only a difference of degree. None are completely 
 good, none are entirely bad. Human nature is the 
 same in all men, but is manifested in a variety of 
 ways. The human race furnishes one of the best 
 illustrations of the law of unity in variety. The difier- 
 ence in the character and disposition of men is a dif- 
 ference of organization, temperament, education, cli- 
 mate and condition. Men may be found, even in civ- 
 ilzed society, in all the intermediate stages of develop- 
 ment between the lowest barbarism and the highest 
 civilization. In proportion as a man is wicked he is 
 barbarous, in proportion as he is good he is civilized. 
 Notwithstanding the diversity of character and action 
 among men, all are prompted to action by one grand 
 leading motive, the desire of happiness and the dread 
 of misery. Men seek happiness in a variety of ways, 
 and commit many blunders and mistakes in their ef- 
 forts to obtain it. The good find it, the bad miss it. 
 The Christian deludes himself if he supposes that he 
 is actuated by motives any different from those of oth- 
 er men. If he renounces what he supposes to be the 
 pleasures of this world for the sake of the glory and 
 bliss of eternity, he has made a good bargain, he has 
 looked out for number one. The balance of profit 
 and loss is decidedly in his favor. No shrewd Yankee 
 could hope to make a better bargain. If the wicked 
 expect to find happiness in sin, they commit a capital 
 mistake, which, sooner or later, it is to be hoped they
 
 126 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 will discover and correct. The good are to be con- 
 gratulated on account of their goodness, the bad are 
 to be commiserated on account of their badness. TTe 
 are, therefore, to have '* compassion on the ignorant 
 and those 'vvho are out of the way." We are to be as 
 God is," kind even to the unthankful and the evil." 
 
 Is this religion a grevious burden on men ? Xo, it is 
 no burden at all. Is its yoke heavy ? No yoke about 
 it. Is it hard to practice ? Far from it. Will it 
 make our pleasures less on earth ? It will greatly en- 
 hance and increase them. Will the practice of it sub- 
 ject us to the scorn and derision of ungodly men ? 
 " Who is he ihat will harm you if you be a follower of 
 that which is good ?" No ; even the vilest of men are 
 so constituted by nature that they cannot but respect 
 virtue, honesty, goodness, and those who practice these 
 virtues, whether they themselves practice them or not. 
 
 The truly religious man, freed from every vestige 
 of superstition, full of confidence in God and human 
 nature, views this life as a school, a state of discipline 
 for the development of the powers and faculties of 
 man. He believes that for this purpose man has been 
 subjected to many and grevious evils, but that never- 
 theless, there is much more happiness than misery in 
 the world, more virtue than vice, more good than evil. 
 Evil in his view is but the shadow of good. " There 
 will be briers where berries grow." If we have the 
 good we must take the evil also. Error he conceives 
 to have no existence except in the opinions of men. 
 Outside the human mind there are no errors, no mis- 
 takes. Error has no basis in nature, no solid founda- 
 tion to rest on. It, like evil, may be outgrown. The 
 error of tor-day may be supplanted, extinguished, an- 
 nihilated by the truth of to-morrow. It is, therefore,
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 127 
 
 transient, evanescent, passing away. So with evil. 
 Tliere is no absolute evil in the Universe. Every stage 
 of human existence has its apparent evils. The igno- 
 rance, dependence and helplessness of infancy and 
 youth are outgrown when we come to be men. The 
 evils connected with manhood we are relieved from 
 in old age, and the evils incident to old age are termi- 
 nated by death. We may hope that the evils of our 
 present state of existence will not follow us into an- 
 other and higher mode of/ existence. Whether evils 
 of any kind will exist in that life is more than we can 
 tell. But if they do, we may be sure that the Being 
 who has so guarded the interests of his creatures here, 
 that none of us can suffer only a certain amount of 
 pain without its terminating in death, will so protect 
 his creatures there, as to render their existence a bless- 
 ing and not a curse. God's ways are perfect. '*He 
 hatli done all things well." He has so established the 
 order of the moral world as that no virtue can be un- 
 rewarded, no vice unpunished. The man who inflicts 
 an injury on his fellow man, at the same time inflicts 
 a much greater one on himself. It is better to be 
 slandered than to slander, to be stolen from than to 
 steal, to be murdered than to murder, "to suffer 
 wrong than to do wrong" Nature knows nothing 
 about forgiveness in the sense of the remission of retri- 
 bution, nothing about inflicting punishment upon the 
 innocent for the sins of the guilty ; nothing about 
 atoning for sin by shedding the blood of innocent vic- 
 tims. On the contrary the great law of Nature is, 
 "he that doeth wrong shall suffer for the wrong which 
 he hath done", and there is no respect of persons." 
 It is not for us to say who are the proper objects of 
 God's righteous retribution, nor who should be there-
 
 128 THE PEO AND CON OF 
 
 cipients of his blessings. We know but liule about 
 ourselves, and still less about our fellow men. We 
 cannot determine the amount ot guilt or innocence of 
 a single human being. It ill becomes us to presume 
 to sit in judgment on our fellows. God only can be 
 the proper judge, and *' the judge of all the earth will 
 do right." It is for us to look with charity upon all 
 men, to encourage them who are in the right way, 
 and to pity those who do wrong . 
 
 The true religionist rises to the conception that the 
 human race constitutesabrotherhood,that we all have 
 one Father, all belong to one Church — the Church of 
 Humanity ; that we are all teachers, and at the same 
 time learners in that Church, that the Bible of Na- 
 ture includes all books, all objects, all sounds, all 
 thoughts and all sensations. That the rites and cere- 
 mones of this Church consist in doing good to all 
 men as we have opportunity. The whole duly of man 
 consists in doing all the good he can, and as little harm 
 as possible. 
 
 In regard to futurity, the philosophic religionist re- 
 alizes that all that relates to the future, beyond the 
 present moment, must be included in the domain of the 
 unknown. Aside from the accounts both ancient and 
 modern of the re-appearance of persuns in tlie S|)irit 
 who were known to have lived and died on earth — ac- 
 counts which are believed by some and discredited by 
 others — the veil which separates the fuiure life from 
 the present has never been lifted, much less removed. 
 The question "if a man die shall he live again " has 
 been as thoroughly investigated and discussed as any 
 other. Able, learned, and good men have advocated 
 both sides of the question. Whenever a peopie emerge 
 from a condition of ignorance and semi-barbarism
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 129 
 
 doubters and unbelievers appear among them, the 
 number increases in the ratio that intelligence is dif- 
 fused, and civilization, culture and refinement are pro- 
 moted. Belief is the most general among those who 
 think and know the least on the subject. Doubt is all- 
 most exclusively confined to thinking, intelligent, 
 well-informed men. We draw no inference from this, 
 but simply state the fact. 
 
 If we analyze and criticise the argument usually re- 
 lied on to prove a future life, it is plain that they are 
 inconclusive and unsatisfactory except to those who 
 are resolutely determined to cling to a belief in it with- 
 out regard to argument or evidence. To the calm en- 
 quirer whose mind is regulated by evidence in believ- 
 ing, and who has no desire to believe anything but 
 what is true, however pleasing and agreeable the be- 
 lief may be, they will be seen to be mere inferences, 
 often from premises which are wholly absurd, or deduc- 
 tions from premises which do not warrant the con- 
 clusion. 
 
 No argument in its favor is more frequently appeal- 
 ed to, nor more generally relied on, than that founded 
 on the desire of men for immortality, and the haj^pi- 
 fying influence of a belief in it. It is surprising that 
 well-informed men can delude themselves with an ar- 
 gument like this. Who does not know that the hopes 
 as well as the fears of mankind can be as readily ex- 
 cited by fiction as by fact. And who does not know 
 that the idle fancies of our childhood days are dis- 
 pelled by age and experience ? In like manner stern 
 truths of logic and philosophy dissipate the ideal fan- 
 cies of our maturer years. 
 
 On the other hand it is impossible to prove 
 that there is no future life. The utmost that un-
 
 130 THE PRO AND CON OF 
 
 believers can do is to nullify the arguments of the be- 
 liever by demonstrating their entire fallacy. The ques- 
 tion then relates to the unknown, if not to the un- 
 knowable. It opens a wide field for the imagination to 
 roam in. All our thoughts on the subject are purely 
 ideal and subjective. That they are not reliable is 
 proved by the fact that the conceptions of different 
 persons are in direct contradiction. To persons who 
 abound in hope, the picture of the future will appear 
 painted in the most gorgeous colors; to those in whom 
 fear predominates it will present only the blackness 
 of darkness forever. 
 
 The influence of the belief in the doctrine in ques- 
 tion will depend on the character and disposition of 
 the believer, and the form in which it is held. In cal- 
 culating its influence upon character, it is necessary to 
 keep in view the following facts. 1. No speculative 
 opinion has the power to change the nature of man. 
 2. The natural character and dispostion of men being 
 dependent on organization and temperament can be 
 effected but very little by their opinions. The ut- 
 most that opinion can do, is to call into exercise feel- 
 ings and sentiments which already exist (in a latent 
 condition perhaps) in the individual, and give direc- 
 tion to his actions. 3. So much stronger is the natu- 
 ral character than opinion, that men often act in a 
 manner entirely inconsistent with their belief. Men 
 are not in character and disposition what they are, be- 
 cause they believe as they do. Hence we have good 
 and bad men of all forms of belief, of all sects and of 
 no sect. A good man will be good in spite of his be- 
 lief, however bad ; a bad man will be bad in spite of 
 his belief, however good. Belief is not a sure index 
 of character, but conduct is. "By their fruits ye
 
 SUPERNATURAL RELIGION. 131 
 
 shall know them" is the best test that can be applied. 
 
 The doctrine of a future life is held in a great varie- 
 ty of forms. In some of its phases it is comparat ve- 
 ly harmless. But in the form in which it has been, and 
 is now most popular in the world, if it is capable of 
 ^ doing some good, it is also capable of doing, and has 
 done an immense amount of mischief. No doctrine, 
 whatever, appeals with mere power to the hopes and 
 fears of mankind, or is better calculated to stir their 
 emotions, and call into exercise all the feelings of 
 their nature. When we consider how general has 
 been the belief in it, and how much it has been en- 
 forced and enlarged upon, it is truly wonderful, that 
 its influence has not been much greater than it has. 
 Itcanonly be accounted for on the supposition that 
 its most intelligent believers have not more tha^i half 
 belived it, and that the ignorant multitude have ac- 
 cepted and endorsed it, without at all comprehend- 
 ing its full import and meaning. In the opinion of 
 the writer its influence for good has been very gene- 
 ally overestimated, while its power to do harm has 
 not been realized by the many, and has been perhaps 
 exaggerated by the few. 
 
 In contemplating the subject, we have often 
 wondered why men do not more generally view it in 
 the light of reason and common sense. 
 
 A conscious existence after death is something about 
 which all knowledge is withheld from us. If knowl- 
 edge on the subject would be a blessing, it would not 
 be withheld. Wc may, therefore, conclude that it is 
 best for us to be ignorant in relation to it. We have 
 been pushed into being by a power over which we have 
 no control. This power, if it knows anything, knows 
 a great deal better than we do whether it is best for us
 
 133 THE PRO AJsD CON Or 
 
 to live another life or not. If it is Dest, we snail ctJr- 
 tainly live again. If it is not best it is foll}^ for us to 
 desire it. The best course for us to pursue, then, is to 
 moderate our desires, and to banish all aiixioas 
 thoughts upon the subject. Anxious mought, even, 
 in relation to the to-morrow of our present life was con- 
 demned by the teacher, Christ ; why should we be 
 more anxious about another life ? It was a noble say- 
 ing of the great Spinoza, " the free man thinks not of 
 death, but only of life." The great question for each 
 one of us is not, shall I live and be happy to-morrow 
 or next year, or in another state of existence, but do 
 I live and am I happy to-day ? 
 
 Those who embrace the popular view may boast, as 
 they are wont to do, about the superiority of their 
 faith; but who has the most confidence in the Supreme 
 Power, he who is willing to trust his destiny, both for 
 time and eternity, to Nature's disposal, or he who is 
 constantly troubled and anxious in regard to what final 
 disposition is to be made of him ? We know our pres- 
 ent existence terminates in death, but we do not know, 
 nor have we good reason to believe, that death is an 
 evil, unless it be an evil not to exist. But if it is an 
 evil not to exist, what a monstrous and inconceiva- 
 ble evil has been endured by every individual of the hu- 
 man race, in that, during the incalculable lapse of 
 time before our existence here, we had no exist- 
 ence. At most, death can only put us back into the 
 same condition we were before our existence here. 
 Not to be, can be no evil, but life, if it is a miserable 
 life, is an evil for which there is no remedy but death. 
 Neither life, nor death is an entity. Both are phenome- 
 nal. Death is the absence of life, or the negation of 
 life. Nothing is more natural than death. Life and
 
 STJPERNATURAL RELIGION. 133 
 
 death are intimately connected. Tiiey run parallel 
 with each other. We no sooner hegin to live ILxn we 
 commence to die. Deatli pervades every kingdom in 
 nature. Man, beasts, birds, fishes, insects, vegeta- 
 bles, all alike are subject to the dominion of death. 
 Can it be that a thing so natural, so common, so uni- 
 versal can be an evil ? For aught we know, life can- 
 not exist in finite beings only in connection with death. 
 Death is not a force. If life is a force, it is far more ra- 
 tional to find fault with life rather thati death, inasmuch 
 as life deserts us at last and consigns us to the condi- 
 tion of death. Nothing serves better to illustrate the 
 pernicious influence of false education than the fact 
 that that which men most dread and fear of all things 
 on earth has the least power to do them harm. 
 
 It may be objected that this view leaves us in uncer- 
 tainty in regard to the future. But is there not the 
 same uncertainty in relation to everything that is fu- 
 ture to the present moment ? We know that we live 
 to-day, we do not know that we shall to-morrow nor 
 next year. When we close our eyes in sleep we are 
 not certain that we shall ever be aroused from our slum- 
 ber. However certain the believer may be that he 
 shall live again after death, he is not certain in regard 
 to what his doom may be in that lite, or if he is, his 
 mind must be in painful uncertainty in regard to the 
 doom of others. 
 
 Again it may be said, that, however plausible our 
 view may be, it is at least safer to adopt the popular 
 belief. If we proceed on the principle here indicated, 
 our only safety lies in taking refui^e in the bosom of 
 the Catholic Church. The truth is, our true safety con- 
 sists in being honest with ourselves, and true to our 
 own convictions. He who pursues any other course is
 
 134 THE PRO AKD CON OF 
 
 either a slave, or a hypocrite and knave. Honesty is 
 the mark of nobleness and manhood, and will carry a 
 man triumphantly through life, through death, and 
 through any life that may await him in the future. 
 The motto of every rational man should be this: ' ' Tlie 
 best possible security for the future is a wise improve- 
 ment of the present." Once more : It may be object- 
 ted that according to our common-sense view of the 
 doctrine of a future life, for anything we know to the 
 contrary, death may terminate the existence of man 
 forever, and this is rather a gloomy view of human 
 destiny. 
 
 There are four prominent views of the destiny of 
 man, which it may be well to state and view in 
 contrast. The first supposes that at death, man is re- 
 solved into his original elements, and is, so far as per- 
 sonal consciousness and identity are concerned, as 
 though he had never been. One common destiny 
 aivaits the human race. In the grave all ranks are lev- 
 eled, the king lies as low as the beggar, and all distinc- 
 tions are done away, If we are insensible to happi- 
 ness, we are also beyond the reach of sorrow, suflfer- 
 ing and pain. If we suffer a loss by death, it is *a loss 
 of which we shall be forever entirely unconscious. 
 That this view is not as cheering as we are capable of 
 conceiving we have no disposition to deny. 
 
 The next view is, that there is to be a future life to 
 be enjoyed by a portion of the human race, while by 
 far the largest portion are to be annihilated forever. 
 
 The third view admits a future life for all, but con- 
 tends that while it will be a life of blessedness to a 
 comparative few, to untold millions it will be a life of 
 inconceivable wretchedness and woe. 
 
 The last view supposes that th*'- future life will ul-
 
 eUPETlNATURAL RELIGION. 135 
 
 timately result in the endless enjoyment and happi- 
 ness of all mankind. 
 
 The first view may be somewhat gloomy, but it is 
 sustained by all human observation and experience. 
 The second may be a little less gloomy, but that is all 
 that can be claimed in its favor. On the ground of 
 rca.^on, we can see no good cause for thinking that 
 there is a sufficient dilTerence between the best man 
 that ever lived and the worst one, to make an infinite 
 difference in their destiny. The third has a bright 
 side, but it has also a dark side. And the dark side is 
 80 inexpressibly horrible and revolting as to obscure 
 even its bright side. It does not become its advo- 
 cates to object to the first view, on account of its 
 gloominess, so lon^ as their view is so much more li- 
 able to the same objection. If the fourth view could 
 be sustained by a sulTicient amount of evidence, no 
 possible objection could lie against it, All it lacks is 
 the proof. Reason sees that the order of nature is, 
 that whatever has a beginning must have an end. 
 Immortality can be predicated only of that which has 
 had no beginning in time. And as man, as a conscious, 
 •thinking, being had a beginning in time, so in time 
 he must have an end. It cannot be denied, however, 
 that the same power that conferred existence upon us, 
 may do so again ; but whether it will or not, is more 
 than we mortals at present know. 
 
 Reader, if you are morbidly sensitive on the question 
 of immortality, you may not like the views above pre- 
 sented. Very well, my friend, you are at liberty to 
 seek for better, and to find them if you can, but I beg 
 of you not to deem me your enemy because I tell you 
 what I believe to be the truth. 
 [the end.]
 
 136 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 A Sketch of the Life of E. E. Guild. 
 
 When the foregoing pages were nearly ready for 
 the press I wrote to Mr. G. requesting a short notice 
 of his past career, believing that the same would be 
 acceptable to the readers of this little volume. In his 
 reply he declined the suggestion, saying he did not 
 think his life had been eventful enough, or that it had 
 possessed importance enough to justify anything be- 
 ing said about it. 
 
 I still felt that a brief sketch of the writer of the 
 foregoing pages would be acceptable to those who read 
 them. I wrote to Dr. T. L. Brown of Binghamton, 
 whom I knew to be well acquainted with Mr. Guild, 
 requesting him to send, unknown to his friend, a short 
 account of his journey in life. He kindly sent the 
 following, and every reader will undoubtedly thank 
 the Doctor for the interesting sketch of the man who 
 has led so blameless a life — who penned the forgoing 
 sensible pages and who was too modest to write a 
 
 word about himself. 
 
 The Publisher. 
 
 Mr. D. M. Ben^'ett, Bear Friejid: Everet Emmett 
 Guild, was born in Delhi, Delaware County, New 
 York, May 6th, 1811. His parents were from New
 
 LIFE OF E. E. GUILD. 1S7 
 
 England, his father was a native of Connecticut, his 
 mother of Massachusetts. When he was three years 
 of age the family moved to Walton, sixteen miles 
 from Delhi, on the west branch of the Deleware river 
 where the sujbect of this notice was reared until he 
 became of age. His father was an Episcopalian, lib- 
 eral and tolerant in his views and feelings; his mother 
 was a Congregationalist, strongly religious, very sin- 
 cere, and took unwearied pains to indoctrinate the 
 minds of her children into the creed of her church. 
 She, however, possessed a great share of good sense, 
 and attached more importance to a correct life, than 
 to a correct belief. She was a conscientious believer 
 m supernatural religion and the divinity of the Bible. 
 These facts are mentioned in order to show under 
 what religious influence Mr. Guild was brought up. 
 
 Aside from his own efforts to educate himself, he has 
 had no advantages of education except those af- 
 forded by the common school, and a course of study 
 of theology under the direction of Rev. Stephen R. 
 Smith, a prominent Universalist clergyman, then of 
 Clinton, Oneida County, N. Y. 
 
 In 1835 he comuienced ofiiciating as a clergyman, 
 preaching mainly in the counties of Deleware, Che" 
 nango and Otsego in New York, and Susquehanna, 
 Luzerne and Wayne in Pennsylvania. He com- 
 menced his public career with views more nearly re- 
 sembling those of the Hicksitc Quakers than any oth- 
 er and always called himself a Quaker Universalist. 
 
 He attached but little importance to forms and cer- 
 emonies, but insisted most strenuously on the practice 
 of morality and virtue. It was often remarked by 
 £ome who heard him preach: "he will never succeed 
 he preaches too inuch truth" or, " he insists too much
 
 138 A SKETCH OF TAB 
 
 on honesty." During his ministry he engaged quite 
 extensively in theological debate, holding some ten or 
 twelve public discussions with prominent clergymen 
 of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Christian and 
 Second Adveutist denominations. All these debates, 
 however excepting one, were engaged in by him in an- 
 swer to invitations given by his antagonists. Mr 
 Guild always identified himself with the progressive 
 school of theologians and did not hesitate to give the 
 advocates of new views an open field and fair play. 
 Possessed of an inquiring, investigating turn of mind 
 and devoting much time to study and reflection, he 
 kept constantly making advances, until at last he was 
 completely emancipated from all traditional beliefs, 
 and conscientiously adopted the opinions which are 
 set forth in this book. These views, as he informs us, 
 are the result of more than forty years of patient, per- 
 severing, and untiring investigation. Mr. Guild is 
 emphatically a " self-made man." He affords a fair 
 example of vrhat an individual may accomplish for 
 himself by well directed eflort. He appeared upon 
 the s'lage of public action, with less than a hundred dol- 
 lars in his possession, and, unaided by the patronage 
 of rich or influential friends, and although holding 
 opinions at variance with those of the majority in the 
 communities in which he has resided, he has succeeded 
 in procuring for himself and family a decent support, 
 and in gaining the respect and good will even of those 
 who were the most bitterly opposed to his opinions. 
 In his youth he was distinguished for his love of ath- 
 letic sports and exercises. In running, leaping, 
 wrestling, lifting, ball-playing, etc., he was seldom ex- 
 celled by his youthful companions. He was also fond 
 of hunting, fishing, and trapping, and was great'y
 
 LIFE OF E. E. GUILD. 139* 
 
 successful in these pursuits. In the meantime he was 
 au active member of a debating club in the village 
 where he resided, which met once a week during the 
 Winter season, and it was in this school that he ac- 
 quired the habit of investigating, and learned the art 
 of debating, and of public speaking. Mr. Guild is 
 naturally inclined to be thoughtful and serious, but is 
 also fond of innocent mirth, and relishes jokes, anec- 
 dotes and amusing stories right well. lie is an intui- 
 tive logician. It is as natural to him to arrange his 
 ideas in a logical method, as it is to breathe. His an- 
 tagonists in public debate, very soon learned never to 
 concede to him his premises, for if they did they were 
 sure of being "driven to the wall." Mr. Guild h:is 
 a passionate thirst for knowledge, and has devoted a 
 great deal of time to the acquisition of useful informa- 
 tion. 
 
 There is scarcely any subject that ever engaged hu- 
 man attention and interest that he has nut inves- 
 tigiitcd to Q, greater or less extent. He is uniformly 
 £00(1 natu»*ed and treats everybody with proper defer- 
 ence and ifjspect. lie never obtrudes his opinions on 
 others ; but when questioned, never hesitates to 
 openly and frankly avow them. He hns the most 
 perfect command of himself, and although possessed 
 of a sanguine, nervous, excitable temjierament, it 
 seems almost impossible to throw him from his 
 balance even under the most trying circumstances. 
 
 Some o/' his antagonists in public debate tried their 
 best to irritate and "provoke him to wrath ; " but 
 never su':ceeded in a single instance. On one occa- 
 sion when his opponent was aggravatingly insulting 
 and s.busive, and full of wrath, shook his fist in his 
 fao« expressing wonder that God should suffer such a
 
 "140 A SKETCH OP THE 
 
 wretch to live, Mr. G. arose and very coolly remark- 
 ed, that he had often said that he would be willing to 
 trust his eternal destiny to the decision of the worst 
 man that ever lived ; but now, said he, I take that 
 back, I have found one man that I dare not trust to 
 that extent. 
 
 On the same occasion the debate was attended 
 throughout by the wife of a Presbyterian Deacon. 
 At the close she remarked that Mr. S. might be the 
 most orthodox in his belief, "but surely," said she, 
 "Mr. G. is by far the most amiable man, and mani- 
 fests most of the Christian spirit." 
 
 None of his opponents ever complained of his 
 treating them in any other than in a fair, respectful and 
 gentlemanly manner. Among the various anecdotes 
 related of him, here is one that is quite amusing as 
 )llustrative of his tact in warding oli' designed insults : 
 He was attending a quarterly conference of the Che- 
 nango Association of Universalists, which was held 
 in a Baptist church, very much in opposition to the 
 wishes of some of its proprietors. He was appointed 
 to preach in the forenoon of the second day. On 
 going to the Church in the morning, a slip of paper 
 was found pinned to the door, on which was written 
 this passage of scripture : " O full of all subtlety and 
 all mischief, thou child of the Devil," etc. It was 
 handed around among the preachers, and the inquiry 
 arose what should be done vviih it. Mr. G. very 
 quietly told them to hand it to him and let him dis- 
 pose of it as he saw fit. 
 
 After the preliminary services in the pulpit, he arose 
 to preach his sermon ; but before naming his text, 
 coolly took from his vest pocket the slip of paper, read 
 it, and explained the circumstances under which it
 
 LIFE OF E. E. GUILD. 141 
 
 was found. He then remarked that he supposed it 
 was designed lo characterize the preachers then pres- 
 ent as children of the Devil, and so far as it was in- 
 tended to apply to him, he begged the privilege of 
 assigning a few reasons for thinking that lie was not 
 a child of the Devil, as follows : 
 
 First, It is a law of Nature that children should 
 bear some resemblance to their parents in their phys- 
 ical conformation. •The Devil, it is said, has a cloven 
 foot, but if you examine my feet, you will find no 
 such deformity. 
 
 Second, It is also nature's law that children should 
 resemble their parents in their natural character and 
 disposition. The Devil is said to be constantly seek- 
 ing whom he may devour, but I was never known to 
 devour a single human being, nor to manifest the 
 least disposition to do so. 
 
 Third, My mother is a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and if you go to her and tell her that 
 I am a child of the Devil, she will indignantly repel 
 the charge and show you the way to the door. 
 
 Mr. G. was never a sectarian nor a proselyter in 
 the ordinary acceptation of these terms. He simply 
 proclaimed what he believed to be the truth, and left 
 it optional witli his hearers in regard to signing creeds 
 and connecting themselves with ecclesiastical organ- 
 izations. He is a reformer, and has been identified 
 with all the principal reforms of his day, such as the 
 dress reform, the dietetic reform, prison reform, re- 
 form of the criminal code, etc. He advocated the 
 gradual emancipation of the Southern slaves, and 
 engaged zealously in the advocacy of the policy of 
 making the public lands free to actual settlers. He 
 assisted in starting a paper in Honesdale, Pa., devot-
 
 1^ A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 ed to this cause, and was one of its principal contrib- 
 utors. 
 
 Being an intimate acquaintance and friend of Galu- 
 sha A. Grow, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, and 
 once Speaker of the House of Representatives, he 
 was instrumental in bringing that subject to his no- 
 tice, the result of which was that Mr. Grow intro- 
 duced the Homestead Bill into Congress, and cham- 
 pioned it until it became a law. -He is also an ardent 
 advocate of the temperance cause. 
 
 He has been a somewhat voluminous writer. Con- 
 tributions from from his pen have appeared in a num- 
 ber of different papers. In 184i he published a de- 
 nominational book, entitled, "The Universalist's Book 
 of Reference." It has passed through five editions, 
 and is believed to have had a larger sale than any 
 other book of the kind, except one, ("The Life of 
 Rev. John Murray,") which has been much longer in 
 market. 
 
 As a public speaker, Mr. Guild is slow, cool, delib- 
 erate, argumentative, methodical, logical, impressive, 
 and as forcible as his physical strength will admit of. 
 He makes no attempt at oratory, and uses only such 
 words as are in common use. He has a peculiar 
 faculty of expressing himself clearly and intelligibly, 
 and of making himself most thoroughly understood. 
 He always has an object in view, and shoots straight 
 at the mark. Having a vivid perception of the con- 
 nection and relation of one truth to another, and of 
 the unity of truth, his discourses are often too thor- 
 ough, elaborate and exhaustive to suit the taste of the 
 unthinking multitude, and can be appreciated only 
 by intelligent, thinking men. He views all subjects 
 from the standpoint of reason and common sense.
 
 LIFE OF B. E. GUILD. 143 
 
 and seems to scorn to make use of the tricks and arts 
 so often employed by public speakers for mere sensa- 
 tion and effect. He appears to rely wholly on argu- 
 ment and persuasion to accomplish his purpose. O. 
 S. Fowler once remarked of him, when examining 
 his head, " This man has a reason for everything he 
 believes and for everything he does ; his head is full 
 of ideas, and arguments with him are as plenty as 
 blackberries in August." 
 
 As a clergyman, no charge was ever brought against 
 him, except that of heresy. 
 
 As a man and a citizen, he is without reproach. 
 He .now resides in Binghamton, N. Y., has retired 
 comparatively from the active duties of life, and 
 claims to have enjoyed as much of life as usually falls 
 to the lot of mortals. In theology, he is a Pantheist; 
 in philosophy, a Materialist; in medicine, an Eclectic; 
 in Religion, a Rationalist, and in morals a Utilita- 
 rian. Truly yours, T. L. Brown. 
 
 Binghamton, N. T., Oct. 18th, 1875.
 
 BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! 
 
 D. M. BENNETT, 
 PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER^ 
 
 335 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 
 
 Win furnish by Mall, books of all kinds, and In all fields 
 of Literature, embracing 
 
 Science, 
 
 Philosophy, 
 History, 
 
 Biography, 
 Medicine, 
 Law. 
 
 Theology, 
 •» Romance, 
 
 Poetry, etc., etc. 
 
 A SPECIALTY 
 
 Made of Scientlflc. Liberal and Soiritualistic Books. 
 
 Books carefully packed and sent postpaid upon receipt 
 of Publisher's price. Address 
 
 D. M. BENNETT, 
 
 835 Broadway, N. I
 
 Did Jesus Really Exist? 
 
 BY D. M. BENKETT. 
 
 The extreme doubt whether such a person as Jesus 
 Christ had a real existence is strengthened more 
 and more the fuller the matter is investigated. The 
 fact that he never wrote a line that has been handed 
 down to posterity, that the world has no possible 
 means of knowing any thing about such a personage 
 having lived save what is obtained from the unknown 
 authors of what are called the gospels of Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke and John; and when there is no evidence 
 that these books were written before the second cen- 
 tury, it can be readily understood that the life and 
 character of the individual under consideration is ex- 
 tremely mythical, as there is no cotemporaneous his- 
 history showing that such a person lived. 
 
 Our opponents frequently quote a paragraph found 
 in Josephus, corroborating the claim that such a per- 
 son did live at one time in Judea. But Dr. Lardner, 
 one of the most eminent Christian historians, long 
 ago pronounced this an interpolation, a forgery, and 
 that it. never existed in the original manuscript of Jo-
 
 a DID JESUS BEALLY EXIST? 
 
 sephns. This opinion of Dr. Lardner was also enter- 
 tained by Gibbon, Ittigius, Blondell, Le Clerc, Yan- 
 dale, Bishop "Warburton, and Tanaquil Faber, the 
 most of whom are noted Christian authorities. In 
 fact the first Christian writers and authors of the 
 past, as well as of the present day, unite in agreeing 
 that the paragraph alluded to is a forgery. Eusebius, 
 in the fourth centuiy, was the first to call attention to 
 the spurious passage, and he is generally accredited 
 with having inserted the paragraph referrring to 
 Jesus. On several occasions Eusebius proved him- 
 self arhply able to use interpolation, spurious ad- 
 ditions and forgeries. Mosheim, in his Ecclesiasti- 
 cal History, page 70, in alluding to this charac- 
 teristic of the early ChriBtiau Fathers, uses this 
 language, that "it was not only lawful, but commend- 
 able to deceive and lie for the sake of truth and 
 piety." It is lamentable that so little reliance can be 
 placed upon the authenticity of the Christian writers 
 in the early centuries of our era. The fact that they 
 were crafty and designing men, and that they used 
 their best abilities to build up the new system of 
 religion which they had allied themselves to, requires 
 no additional proof. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that, in the first and second 
 centuries, there were three distinct classes of Chris- 
 tians; one the Gnostics, who firmly held that such a 
 person or individual as Christ had not had an exist- 
 ence as a man in the flesh, and that he was a spirit 
 only. The Arians were another class, who admitted 
 that there was a man Jesus, but that he was merely a 
 human being, and not a God. The third class main- 
 tained that he not only existed in the flesh, but that he 
 was also the eternal God of heaven and earth. The
 
 DID JESUS REALLY EXIST t 3 
 
 disputes and quarrels between these contending fac- 
 tions became very heated and bitter, until finally the 
 third class, by strategy and superior numbers, over- 
 powered those who denied that such a person as 
 Christ liad had a real existence, and forced them to 
 abandon the field, and it afterwards became a recog- 
 nized dognm of the Church that Jesus had not only 
 been a man, but, also, was absolutely God. But that 
 large numbers in the first two centuries did persist- 
 ently and stoutly contend that such a person as Christ 
 had not had a real existence in the body, cannot be 
 efifectuaiiy gainsaid, and is well calculated to excite 
 oar liveliest susuicions. 
 
 in taking into consideration the characteristics of 
 mA»» WHO have played an active part in difierent ages 
 oi ik^6 vorld In establishing the various systems of 
 raufriOB and creeds the world has Imown, it is not 
 dilficult to appreciate how such a system as Christian- 
 ity might have gained a foothold among men without 
 the events strictly having transpired which are claim- 
 ed. In our own day, we have seen Mormonism arise 
 from the merest pretenses and the barest assertions, 
 and have seen it within a few decades grow into a 
 system that now has very considerable strength and 
 ha« the implicit confidence of thousands. 
 
 Mahomelanism is another illustration of this relig- 
 ious growth. It originated in the claims, assertions 
 and aaeumptionsof an individual, and gradually spread 
 over several countries until hundreds of millions 
 accepted it as a God-given religion, and they have not 
 a shade of doubt but what it is the most divine bequest 
 ever made to the world. Thoso of us who are not under 
 the influence of this religion, can easily see where its 
 devotees are mirtakeu, and that Ihey have been mia-
 
 4 Dm JX8t78 RSAXLT EXIST? 
 
 led by designing or deluded leaders. If it is impossi- 
 ble for us to feel the same veneration for their creed 
 and their sjiperstitions that they do, we can compla- 
 cently and dispassionately view the position they 
 occupy, with the disinterestedness of an outside' ob- 
 server, and can easily perceive the mistakes and falla- 
 cies they have made, as well as comprehend the uuten- 
 ability of the divine claims they set up. 
 
 So it is with Christianity. To those not encircled 
 within the influence which it exerts, and who do not 
 bow to the demands which it sets up, are able io see 
 not only its defects, but the errors it makes in claim- 
 ing a direct divine origin. 
 
 When we find that the authorities upon which a 
 system rests are defective, and that they do not cor- 
 roborate the claims put forth by its advocates, we 
 have good grounds to doubt its truth. We remarked 
 that the four gospels were unknown till near the close 
 of the second century, or rather that there is no proof 
 of their having an earlier existence. Irenaeua was 
 the first Christian writer who referred to them or rec- 
 ognized them as being extant, and he died in the 
 forepart of the third century. Other pretended and 
 spurious gospels, almost without number, had been 
 known prior to this, but they were discarded as 
 fraudulent, and those upon which the grand fabric of 
 Christianity is founded, were unknown till near two 
 hundred years after the time Jesus was said to have 
 lived. What an uncertain data to build upon. What a 
 fine opportunity was here afforded the early fathers to 
 get up the gospel story, or to have it written to order. 
 The gospels have been attributed to various Christian 
 fathers, as well as to bishops, priests and monks, but 
 with what aipouut of truth it is now imnossiblo to
 
 DID JESUS BBALLY EXIST ? 6 
 
 demonstrate. It is also claimed that tbe plot of the 
 gospel story was handed down from the Kssenes, the 
 Therapeuts and the monks of Egypt, and was revised, 
 re-written and re-located by Christians in tlw ^rly 
 centuries, similar to what Shakespeare did by the 
 most of his plays, the plots of which were borrowed 
 from tlie inventions and traditions of earlier times. 
 
 The Niceue Council, consisting of several hundred 
 quarrelsome and pugilistic bishops, called together by 
 that wholesale Christian murderer, Constantine, which 
 assembled in the year 325, in which contentions and 
 fights without number took place, took into consider- 
 ation the authenticity of fifty or more " gospels," 
 written by different individuals, and after indulging 
 in the most acrimonious dissensions and fist-fights, 
 finally decided by vote whether the difi'ereut gospels 
 presented were the word of God. They rejected all 
 but the four now in the Testament, and one of those 
 was admitted by a single vote ; but it was not until 
 the middle of the sixth century that the books now 
 composing the New Testament were fully settled 
 upon, several of them having been persistently dis- 
 carded by previous authorities. Thus, we see, by 
 what a frail tenure our boasted '* word of God " 
 hangs, and how easy it Was for fraud and deception 
 to have been practiced in getting it up. 
 
 The facts we have here mentioned, together with 
 others we have before alluded to, the close resem- 
 blance between Jesus and Hhe numerous demi-gods 
 and teachers who preceded him, are quite sufficient 
 to shake the confidence of the most credulous devo- 
 tee in the actuality of his existence. Christna, Budd- 
 ha and others have been considered, but if it is not 
 too much like repetition, we will call attention to
 
 6 DID JESUS REALLY EXIST? 
 
 Others who preceded Jesus, and to whom his acts and 
 sayings bear a very strong resemblance, 
 
 Alcides, of Egypt, was said to have been born of 
 a virgin; to have performed miraculous cures; to have 
 converted water into wine ; to have cast out devils ; 
 to have raised two persons from the dead ; to have 
 restored sight to the blind ; to have made the dumb to 
 speak and the lame to walk. For Osiris, also, simi- 
 lar claims were made. 
 
 Of Pythagoras, of Greece, his devout followers 
 asserted that he was originally a spirit from heaven ; 
 that his birth was miraculously foretold ; that his 
 mother, a virgin, conceived by a spectre ; that in his 
 youth he astonished the doctors by his learning and 
 knowledge ; that he could foretell events ; that he 
 could subdue wild beasts ; that he could be in two 
 places at once ; that he could walk on water ; that he 
 could handle poisonous serpents without injury; that 
 he cured all manner of diseases ; restored sight to the 
 blind ; cast out devils ; allayed tempests ; raised peo- 
 ple from the dead, and thousands, almost, of other 
 wonderful feats as narrated by Jambilicus. He was 
 said to possess a very humble disposition ; to be very 
 kind to the poor ; to have fasted and prayed, and that 
 he advised his disciples to forsake relatives and houses 
 and lands for religion's sake. In precepts, moral les- 
 sons and purity of life, there was a great similarity 
 between him and Jesus, but the latter is not claimed 
 to have existed till the former had been dead five 
 hundred years. 
 
 Prometheus was a mythical character, but five 
 centuries before the time of Jesus it was held of him 
 that he had a miraculous birth, that he had a band of 
 disciples; that he taught the best moral precepts; that
 
 DEO JESUS RBALLT EXIST? *t 
 
 he was finally crucified as an expiation for mankind 
 amid signs, wonders, and miracles; that nature was 
 convulsed, and that deceased saints arose from theii 
 graves; that the sun was darkeiicd and refused to 
 shine; that after crucifixion he descended into hell, 
 and was afterwards seen to ascend into heaven. 
 
 Apollonius of Tyana, in Cappadocia, had faithful 
 disciples and biographers in Dumos and Philostratus, 
 who made great claims for this remarkable personage, 
 and which were implicitly believed by great num- 
 bers of people. That he had a miraculous conception; 
 that his mother was a virgin; that all nature was 
 subject to his power; that he performed great num- 
 bers of miraculous cures; that he restored the blind 
 to sight; made the lame to walk; cast out devils; 
 raised the dead; read the thoughts of those around 
 him; caused a tree to bloom; spoke in languages he 
 never learned; that he was transfigured ; that he led 
 a spotless life; that he did not marry, and opposed 
 sexual pleasures; that he spent his time in teaching 
 those who gathered around him; that he was a 
 prophet, and could foretell events; that he was im- 
 prisoned and loaded with chains; that he was cruci- 
 fied midst a display of divine power; that he rose 
 from the dead; that he appeared to his disciples after 
 his resurection; that he finally ascended up to 
 heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, and 
 much more of a similar character, and fully equal in 
 every respect to what was claimed for Jesus. 
 
 Of Simon Magus, who also existed before Christ, it 
 was claimed that he was "in the beginning with 
 God" that he existed from all eternity ; that he took 
 upon himself the form of man ; that he was the 
 *• word " the son of God ' that he was the second
 
 8 DID JB8U8 BEALLT EXISTf 
 
 person in the trinity ; that he could control the ele- 
 ments ; that he could walk in the air: that he could 
 move any bodies at will ; that he raised the dead ; 
 that he came to redeem the world from sin ; that he 
 was the world's *' Savior," "Redeemer," and *' the 
 only begotten of the Father," and that through his 
 name the world was to be saved. 
 
 Numerous other " Saviors " and '* Redeemers," who 
 lived before Christ might be named in this connect- 
 ion to show the striking similarity which existed be- 
 tween him and them, but we have already quoted 
 enough to give the reader clearly to understand that 
 there were, hundreds of years before the time of Jesus, 
 abundance of material of which to spin and weave his 
 story ; and that taking all the facts into consideration, 
 the prior existence of similar claims, and the extreme 
 doubt of the authenticity of the gospel narratives of 
 Christ, the strongest probability is that such a per- 
 sonage is Jesus never had an existence ; or, that if 
 he did exist, he was only a common mortal, to whom, 
 a century or two after his death was falsely attributed 
 by designing, dishonest persons, deific characteristics, 
 impossible performances, and moral utterances, after 
 the style of the fabulous demi-gods and distinguished 
 teachers of older times. 
 
 TRUTH SEEKER LEAFLETS, 
 
 Containing two pages each of terse, trenchant reading 
 matter, without redundancy. 
 
 Price by mail, 4 otfl, per dot ; 26 cte. per hundred; $2.00 
 per thousand. 
 
 D. M. BENNETT. 
 
 aaf Broadway. N. T.
 
 JUST ISSUED! 
 
 BURGESS-UNDERWOOD 
 
 DEBATE. 
 
 COMMENCING JUNE. 29th, 1875, 
 
 AT AYLMER, ONTARIO, 
 
 AND GONTINUINa FOUR BAYS. 
 BETWEEN 
 
 PROF. O. A. BURGESS, 
 
 PEES'T N. W. CHRISTIAN UNIVEESITY, INDIANAPOLIS. IND., 
 AND 
 
 B. F. UNDERWOOD, 
 
 OP BOSTON. MASS. 
 
 REP0R2ED BY JOHN T. TIAWKE. 
 
 First Proposition.— The Christian Religion, as set forth 
 in the Now Testament, is true in fact and of divine ori- 
 gin. Burgess in affirmative; Underwood in negative. 
 
 Second Proposition.— The Bible is erroneous in many 
 of its teachings regarding science and morals, and is of 
 human origin. Underwood in affirmative; Burgess in 
 negative. 
 
 Every person who likes to hear both sides of a ques- 
 tioa, and to i)e apprised of what can be said by each dis- 
 putant, should avail themselves of the opportunity of 
 procuring his valuable work. 
 
 PRESS NOTICE: 
 
 An Aylmer paper of July 9th. l«75, contained the follow- 
 ing: "The advocate of Chrisiianity, Pres't Burgess, of 
 the Northwestern University, Indianapolis, is everthi ng 
 he has boon represented to be. An eloquent speaker. 
 whoso words escape from his mouth, clothed with a living 
 earnestness which cannot fail to find a responsive echo 
 in ihe heart of every Christian. 
 
 '• B. F. UNDETiWooD, of Bosiou, makes more impression 
 on the thinkers by his facts, authorities and theories, and 
 when those need more forcible expression, is not inferior 
 to liUROESs as an orator. The difference between him 
 and Burgess in that respect, is, that the latter is almost 
 atal. times eloquent. and generally appealingto the sym- 
 pathies of his audience: whilst 31b. Underwood does dot 
 rely on the momentary Influence of language, but ad- 
 vances idea after i lea, fact after fact, theory after theory, 
 with such startling rapidity, that only the most highly 
 cultivated mind and the most profound thinker can grasp 
 them." 
 
 12 rao. 180 pp. In paper 60 cts.; cloth, $1. Postpaid. 
 D. M. BENNETT. 335 Broadway. N. Y.
 
 Truth Seeker Tracts. 
 
 [REVISED LIST.] 
 
 No. Cts. 
 
 1. Discussion on Prayer, etc. D. M. Bennett and two 
 
 Clergymen. 8 
 
 2. Oration on tlie Q-ods. K. G-. Ingersoll. 10 
 
 3. Thomas Paiae. R. Gr. Ingersoll. 5 
 
 4. Arraingment of the Church, or Individuality, By 
 
 R. Gr. Ingersoll. 5 
 
 5. Heretics and Heresies. R. G. Ingersoll. 5 
 
 6. Humboldt. R. Gr. Ingersoll. 6 
 
 7. The Story of Creation. D. M. Bennett 6 
 
 8. The Old Snake Story. *' 2 
 
 9. The story of the Flood. " 6 
 
 10. The Plagues of E^-ypt. " 2 
 
 11. Korah, Datham, and Abiram, D, M. Bennett. 1 
 
 12. Balaam and his Ass, D. M. Bennett. 2 
 
 13. Arraignment of Priestcraft. D. M. Bennett 8 
 
 14. Old Abe and Little Ike. John Syphers. 8 
 
 15. Come to Dinner. '* 2 
 
 16. Fog Horn Documents. " 2 
 
 17. The Devil Still Ahead. " 2 
 
 18. Slipped up Again. " 2 
 ly. Joshua Stopping the Sun and Moon. D. M. Bennett 2 
 
 20. Samson and his Exploits. D. M. Bennett 2 
 
 21. The Great Wrestling 3Iatch. " 2 
 
 22. Discussion with Elder Shelton. *' 10 
 
 23. Reply to Elder Shelton's Fourth Letter. D. M. 
 
 Bennett. 3 
 
 24. Christians at Work. Wm. McDonnell. 6 
 
 25. Discussion with Geo. Snode. D. M. Bennett 3 
 
 26. Underwood's Prayer. 1 
 
 27. Honest Quesnon and Honest Answers. Bennett 5 
 
 28. Alessandro di Cagliostro. Chas. Sotheran. 10 
 
 29. Paine Hall Dedication Address. B. F. Underwood. 5 
 
 30. Woman's Rights and Man's Wrongs. John Syphers. 2 
 
 31. Gods and God-houses. John Syphers. 2 
 
 32. The Gods of Superstition and the God of the Uni- 
 
 verse. D. M. Bennett. 8 
 
 33. What has Christianity Done? S. H. Preston. 2 
 
 34. Tribute to Thomas Paine. S. H. Preston. 2 
 
 35. Moving the Ark. D. M. Bennett 2 
 
 36. Bennett's Prayer to the Devil. 2 
 
 37. A Short Sermon. No. l. Rev. Theologicus.D.D. 2 
 
 38. Christianity not a Moral System. X. Y. Z. 2 
 
 39. The True Saint S.P.Putnam. 1 
 
 40. The Bible of Nature vs. The Bible of Men. Syphers. 2 
 
 41. Our Ecclesiastical Gentry. D. M. Bennett 1 
 
 42. Elijah the Tishbite. D. M. Bennett 4 
 
 43. Christianity a Borrowed System, D. M. Bennett. 3 
 
 44. Design Argument Refuted, B. F. Underwood. 3 
 
 45. Elisha the Prophet D, M. Bennett. 2 
 
 46. Did Jesus ReaUy Exist? D. M. Bennett 8
 
 47. Cruelty and Credulity of the Human Race. Dr. 
 
 Daniel Arter, 3 
 
 48. Freethouffht in the West. Gr. L. Henderson. 5 
 
 49. Sensible Conclusions. E. E, Guild. 5 
 
 50. Jonah and the Big Fish. D. M. Bennett. 3 
 61. Sixteen Trut'i Seeker Leaflets. No. 1 5 
 
 52. Marples-Underwood Debate. B. F. Underwood. 3 
 
 53. Questions for Bible Worshipers. B. F. U'vlerwood. 2 
 5i. An Open L'3t*cer to Jesus Christ. D. M. li-nnett. 5 
 
 55. Bible God Disproved by Nature. W. E. Coleman. 8 
 
 56. Bible Contradictions. 1 
 
 57. Jesus Not a Perfect Character. B. F. Underwood. 2 
 
 58. Prophecies. B. F. Underwood. 2 
 
 59. Bible Prophecies Concerning Babylon. Underwood. 2 
 
 60. Ezt^kiel's Prophecies Concerning Tyre. Underwood. 2 
 
 61. History of the Devil. Isaac Paden. 5 
 
 62. The J(^ws and their God. Isaac Paden. 10 
 
 63. The Devil's Due-Bills. John Syphers. 3 
 
 64. The Ills we endure— their Cause and Cure. Bennett. 5 
 
 65. Short Sermon No. 2. Eev. Theologicus, D.D. 2 
 
 66. God Idea in History. Hugh Byron Brown. 5 
 
 67. Sixtei-n Truth Seeker Leaflets, No. 2. 5 
 
 68. Kuth's Idea of Heaven and Mine. Susan H. Wixon. 2 
 
 69. Missicnaries. Mrs. E. D. Slenker. 2 
 
 70. Vicarious Atonement, Dr. J. S. Lyon. 3 
 
 71. Piling's Anniversary. C. A. Codman. 3 
 
 72. Shcidrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. D. M. Bennett. 2 
 7:j. Foundations. John SvDliers. 3 
 7-i. Diiiiiel in the Li(in>' Den. D. M. Bennett. 2 
 75 4u Hour with the Devil. D. M. Bennett. 8 
 
 Scientific Series. 
 
 1. Hereditary Transmission. Prof. Louis Eisberg.M.D. 5 
 
 2. Evolution; from the Homogeneous to the Hetero- 
 
 geneous. B. F. Und'rwood. 3 
 
 3. D.irwinism. B. F. Underwood. 3 
 
 4. Literature of the Insane. Frederic R. Marvin. M.D. 5 
 
 5. Responsibility of Sex. Mrs. Sara B. Chase, M.D. 3 
 
 6. Graduated Atmospheres. James McCarroll. 2 
 
 7. Death. Frederic R. Marvin, M.D. 5 
 Discount on $1 worth, 10 per cent. ; on $2 worth. 20 per 
 
 cent. ; on $3 worth. 25 per cent. ; on $5 worth. 40 per cent. ; 
 on $10 worth, 50 per cent. Postage paid, by mail. 
 
 The foregoing Tracts, with a nurabor of others not yet 
 liste.l. will be issued early in 1876. in THREE VOLUMES, 
 of 500 pages each, at the extrcincdy low price of go ctiuts in 
 paper, and s i . o in cloth, or $1.50 for the three volumes 
 in papier, or $2.50 tor the three volumes in cloth. Cheaper 
 and bnttcr reading matter on a wide variety of subjects, 
 and by dillerout authors, can nowhere be obtained. 
 
 D. M. BENNETT, 
 
 385 l]roadway, N. Y.
 
 Will Tou Take a Copy ? 
 
 tow in press, and will be issued in the early part of 1878, 
 THE 
 
 I) 
 
 'I 
 
 IKofld's Saps, lofidels aod Tliinkers, 
 
 Bflng the Biographies and Important sayings of the 
 most distinguished Teachers, Philosophers, Reformers, 
 Innovators, Founders of New Schools of Thought and 
 Religion, Unhelievers in Current Theology, Scientists and 
 Humanitarians of the world, from the early age of Menu 
 down through the following 3000 years to our own time. 
 
 A crown- octavo volume of over 800 pages. 
 
 By D. M. BENNETT, Editor of The Truth Seeker, 
 
 With a steel plate Engraving of the Author. 
 
 It Is believed the work will fill a want long felt, and will 
 add materially to the general information touching the 
 characters treated, affording a succinct and correct ac- 
 count of the best and truest persons who have lived, and 
 In a convenient and economical form. 
 
 The whole will be divided Into four parte: 
 
 PART I 
 
 Will embrace Menu, Zoroaster, Ohrlstna, Buddha, Con- 
 fucius. Lycurgus, Anaxlmander. Eplmenedes, Pythag- 
 oras, Solon. Xenophanes, Socrates, Plato. Diogenes. Epi- 
 curus, Zeno. Hypocrates, Aristotle, Cicero, and many 
 others of the most prominent Grecian and Boman Sages 
 down to the Christian era. « 
 
 PART II 
 Will contain Jesus, Seneoa, Celsus, Porphyry, Pliny, 
 Antoninus, Plutarch, Epictetus, Galen, Hypatia, Julian 
 the A;>ostate, Mahomet, Roger Bacon, Boccaccio, Bruno, 
 Yanlnl, Copernicus, Galileo, Hobbes, Spinoza, Lord Ba- 
 con, Descartes, Hume, and many otkers. prior to. and Ia 
 the eighteenth oeutury.
 
 PART III 
 Enabraee* later Freethinkors. Philosophers and Sel^av 
 tiatii down to our own time, some of whom are Helv«- 
 tluB, Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Goethe, Kant. 
 Condorcet, Volney, D'Holbaeh. Richard Carlyle, Sir Wm. 
 Hamilton. Combe, Paine, Jefferson. Humboldt, Mary 
 Wollstonecraft, Shelley. Comte. Frances Wright. Harriei 
 Martineau, Kneeland, Parker. Feuerbach, Lyell, StrauBS. 
 G. Vale. Buckle. J. Stuart Mill, and others who have ro 
 oently4lied. 
 
 PART IV 
 Win comprise the livJns: Scientists, Teachers. Llberallsti^ 
 Advanced Thinkers, and promul^^ators of Free Thought, 
 among whom are Darwin. Huxley. Spencer. Tyndall, 
 Helmholtz. Beuchner, Wallace, Crookes. Renan. Oolenso. 
 Draper. Fiske. Holyoke. Watts. Bradlaugh. Mendum, 
 Beaver. R. D. Owen, S. P. Andrews, Frothingham, AbboK 
 A. J. Davis. Tuttle. Denton. Pike, Ellis, IngersoU, Under- 
 wood, Peebles, and numerous others, oomposlnff thA 
 mental advance guard of the age. 
 
 The work will embrace some onb hundbed ajtd nwTt 
 of the characters to whom the world owes so much for 
 the progress it has made in the evolution of thou^rh^ 
 truth and reason. 
 
 An important feature will be to give the death-bod Inol* 
 dents of the characters treated, so far as possible, thna 
 disproving the false assertions so often made, that Unb#» 
 lievers and Infidels recant upon their death-beda. 
 
 The work will be printed on now type, good paper, and 
 will be bound in good style. Price, by mail or other- 
 wise. THREE DOLLARS. 
 
 03" }i. B. No money retjuirod until the work is ready 
 to deliver; r.nd after received. If it is not worth the price, 
 and does not give satisfaction, and is returned In good 
 order, the money will bo refunded. Those wishing the 
 wo^k. will make application as below, that it may 1m 
 known how large an edition to print. 
 
 Orders for the work will be taken by B. P. UmI>S»> 
 WOOD, or they may be sent to tlio Author and Publishet; 
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 THE HEATHENS OF THE HEATH, 
 
 BY WM. McDonnell. 
 
 Author of •* Exeter Hall." etc.. etc 
 
 This Work is rich in romantic and pathetic Inoldenta. 
 It eihibks. with an overwholmlna: array of facts, the 
 
 Terrible Atrocities 
 
 committed by the Church. It shows that the purest mor- 
 ality exists without the Bible, and that many of the heath- 
 en philosophers were " Lovers of Virtue." 
 
 Sliocking Instancoj: are given of the depravity of Chris- 
 tian ministers, and of the prevailintf Immorality amone: 
 Christian people. 
 
 The folly of "Foreign Missions" Is fully portrayed. 
 Hypocrisy and bigotry are clearly exposed, and the road 
 to virtue and happiness plainly marked out. 
 
 A most pleasing Romance is woven Into the work in 
 which much chance i^ aff-^rdel for flue descriptions and 
 beautiful sentiments, which the author well knows how 
 to give utterance to. 
 
 "On the whole It Is the work of a master hand— a work 
 of uaaffoetod beauty and the deepest Interest. 
 
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